Author: NLM Correspondent

By Zach Vertin The Horn of Africa will be the first casualty,” opined one dejected Somali, shaking his head. He might have been talking about terrorism, or climate change, or the famines that have more than once devastated his region. Instead he was referring to a toxic new contagion imported from the Middle East—the Gulf crisis that, since 2017, has pitted Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain against Qatar and its ally Turkey. That feud is now infecting the Horn, a neighbourhood already fighting to cure its own long-standing ills. Turkey features regularly in new debates…

BY NLM Writer A disastrous drought in Somalia could leave some 2.2 million people – nearly 18 percent of the population – faced with severe hunger during the July-September period, the FAO has warned. The UN agency issued a special alert on Somalia, indicating that the number of hungry people in the country this year is expected to be 40 percent higher than estimates made at the beginning of 2019. A deteriorating nutritional status is also of major concern, according to the alert. Acute malnutrition rates as well as the number of acutely malnourished children being admitted to therapeutic feeding…

By Fuad Abdirahman In May 2013, through a sham election where voting was conducted by show of hands, Ahmed Mohamed Islam, aka Sheikh Madobe was declared winner; he was unopposed, the other candidates having pulled out of the race days and hours before it was held – reportedly intimidated by the powerful Ras Kamboni militia group loyal to Madobe, and with blessing of ‘friendly’ foreign nations. When he joined the Ras Kamboni Movement, he quickly rose to become a high ranking member of the group, on account of his cosy relationship with Hassan Turki, a powerful military leader in the…

BY NLM Writer The cervical cancer burden falls unequally on Africa, with 19 of the 20 most affected countries on this continent. The disease kills 311 000 women a year worldwide and is the second most common cancer among women in the African region. Yet, cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and curable forms of cancers, through vaccination, early detection and treatment, which makes bringing cervical cancer to an end a priority for the World Health Organisation. “With rates for cervical cancer up to six times higher in the African region than in North America, we can see…

Afrobarometer is now in its 20th year as a pre-eminent, independent, non-partisan network of African research institutes in several African countries, specialising in in-depth scientific measurement of African public opinion in more than 30 countries where political space is sufficient for it to conduct its surveys. Afrobarometer’s motto is to “let the people have a say.” In a just issued report, two Michigan State University scholars who are also affiliated with Afrobarometer have examined Afro-Barometer data on how African citizens in 34 countries assess the meaning for them of the quality of democracy in their respective countries. Overall, the…

The country has just borrowed another Sh210 billion from the international market, bringing our total debt value to figures above Sh5 trillion. A third of it will be used to repay the first portion of the 2014 Eurobond, due on June 24. The remaining will go towards plugging a Sh635 billion size hole in the 2019/20 budget. Lest it be forgotten, the Eurobond we are servicing is the same one whose spending remains a mystery. Government says it either spent it on development without giving specifics, or ask for time to explain. Pressed, it may point to the Galana-Kulalu irrigation…

The country has just borrowed another Sh210 billion from the international market, bringing our total debt value to figures above Sh5 trillion. A third of it will be used to repay the first portion of the 2014 Eurobond, due on June 24. The remaining will go towards plugging a Sh635 billion size hole in the 2019/20 budget. Lest it be forgotten, the Eurobond we are servicing is the same one whose spending remains a mystery. Government says it either spent it on development without giving specifics, or ask for time to explain. Pressed, it may point to the Galana-Kulalu irrigation…

If a debt goes unpaid and you’ve made no plans to repay it, your credit card company may sue you in civil court for the balance. Not only could a judgment in the creditor’s favor possibly allow them to seize your property or take the money you owe directly from your bank account or salary, but it also could leave you responsible for all court-related costs associated with the lawsuit. While any legal action taken against you is a serious matter, there are steps you can take after receiving a summons to appear in court that could lessen the blow.…

By Prof Kivutha Kibwana This essay is, first and foremost, a critique of one aspect of Professor J.B. Ojwang’s theorizing on the nature and scope of executive power in the African one-party state. Put in a nutshell, Ojwang argues the chief executive in Africa’s single regime possesses extra-juridical power derivable from non-constitutional and non-legal sources. Such argument, we think, not only lends ideological support to besieged authoritarianism, but it also boldly contradicts the refreshing research and writing on constitutional development in Africa, hence our interest in Ojwang’s unique constitutional ideas. Simultaneously with the above concern of criticising Ojwang’s work, we…

By Ahmednasir Abdullahi, SC This purpose of this editorial is not to foretell the imminent or premature demise of Justice J.B Ojwang, for I think it is too early to make this inference just because a tribunal has been set up to investigate some alleged misconduct on his part. I must admit, however, that I have never admired Ojwang, either as a scholar or as a judge, for I am yet see a scintilla of virtue I find attractive. But I also don’t loathe him; I have no reason to. That said, as someone who has known the good judge…