Author: NLM Correspondent

By Dennis Ngira and Brian Kuria Recent developments in Kenya have served to bring to the limelight matters of the LGBTQI, who are often marginalised in society. Nowhere else has this been more pronounced than the Kenyan courts, where matters touching on the community, more so the place of their rights within the Constitution of Kenya 2010. The Kenyan Judiciary has been quite steadfast and progressive in protecting their rights. It has been at the forefront in attempting to either have their rights recognised within Kenyan society or push for measures to protect their rights and interests. Various institutions in…

By Prof. John Harbeson The 60th birthday of Kenya’s independence this December is a time for celebration and remembrance of all Kenyans have achieved, not yet realised, suffered and endured, and had aspirations sustained and still upheld. These outcomes have been variably recognised and reported over the decades. At the same time, they have been composites of the stories of legions of individual Kenyan citizens and their communities, organisations, enterprises and movements. No book could do more than sample all those stories. I suggest, however, that in honouring Kenyan independence, it would be appropriate to recognise and recount at least…

“If you put a religious person and a prostitute in one room, one’s necessity is likely to convert the other” – African Proverb. By Ali Abdi Mater artium necessitas. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the law is replete with theories and doctrines that are the outgrowth of necessity. Perhaps no area of law provides more opportunity and need for invention owing to necessity than does insolvency. A simple view of insolvency is that it is a notorious murky area where legal space warps. The contours of this area are fuzzy, if not nebulous. It is trite that the…

A record 114 million forcibly displaced around the world represents a ‘’crisis of humanity’’, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi said in December as the Global Refugee Forum got underway in Geneva. Setting the tone for the discussion, Mr. Grandi said that 114 million ‘’represents the number of refugees and displaced people whom persecution, human rights violations, violence, armed conflict, serious public disorder have forced from their homes: 114 million shattered dreams, disrupted lives, interrupted hopes.’’ He stressed the need to tackle the root causes of displacement and highlighted the humanitarian obligation to assist people uprooted by ‘’protracted crises’’ in places…

The Global Black Impact Summit (GBIS), a highly anticipated event celebrating #BlackExcellence and fostering global unity, is set to address a critical topic at its upcoming edition: the importance of dedicated Black platforms that create opportunities for Black talent. Taking place next February in Dubai, the summit will bring together global leaders, influencers, entrepreneurs and visionaries to tackle the underrepresentation of Black individuals and drive transformative change. The summit highlights opportunities for Black talents across industries, ranging from business and the arts to technology and academia. By establishing dedicated platforms that foster inclusivity, GBIS aims to promote growth, visibility and…

By Dr Kariuki Maigua The KRA ADR Framework was launched in June 2015 and revised in June 2019 to provide an internal process for KRA to amicably resolve and settle tax disputes outside the judicial process. The ADR Framework aimed at complementing the judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms for resolving tax disputes in the tax laws “by introducing ADR as an additional and/or alternative means of resolving tax disputes.” Importantly, the ADR Framework has helped to achieve alternative dispute resolution of tax disputes as envisaged and proposed under Article 159 (2) (c) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, section 28 of…

By the National Treasury’s own admission, a fragile wall holds Kenya back from economic collapse, but the problem is more than just about money – it is also about bad policy after bad policy, and clueless advisors By Silas Apollo For close to a month now, rising tensions within the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance, pitting allies of President William Ruto against one another, have fuelled speculations over a possible rift within the coalition. For most of September, the Kenya Kwanza Alliance has witnessed growing tensions as infights linked to a supremacy battle over the leadership of the Mount Kenya region…

Despite the recent introduction of new taxes, the government is still finding itself in a deep hole as operations of agencies funded by the Exchequer come to a halt. In its first budget, the Kenya Kwanza administration went out to raise revenue base by introducing new taxes, such as the housing levy, and increasing others, such as the VAT on fuel from 8 to 16 percent and income tax on the high-income earners with Sh500,000 or more in gross pay. Yet the increase in revenue has yet to make the situation any better. If you take the first quarter, public-funded…

By Mumbi Mutoko As Kenya’s debt levels soar, concerns are rising about the nation’s ability to navigate its present financial quagmire. The most recent data from the Treasury reveals that Kenya’s total public debt has surpassed the 10 trillion shilling mark, clocking Sh10.1 trillion as of June 30, 2023, raising red flags about the country’s fiscal sustainability. The surge in public debt is attributed to various factors, including external loan disbursements, exchange rate fluctuations, and the uptake of both domestic and external debt, making the servicing these loans increasingly burdensome. With the Kenyan shilling’s value plummeting to record lows, currently…

By Danielle Resnick Gabon’s elections on August 26 attracted minimal global attention, largely because interest was focused on massive voting irregularities in Zimbabwe’s elections, which were held the same week. Just as with Emmerson Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe, there was little expectation that Gabon’s Ali Bongo Ondimba would lose the presidency. He and his father, Omar Bongo, jointly ruled Gabon as a dynastic fiefdom for more than 50 years.  The fact that no outside election observers were allowed to monitor the elections, including the African Union (AU), signaled that both the process and outcome were going to be neither free nor…