Author: NLM Correspondent

By Prof John Harbeson We are now three years into the second major, multilateral international effort to overcome the most salient manifestations of underdevelopment across the entire globe. The first, the Millennium Development Goals project sought to achieve eight major objectives between 2000 and 2015: ending extreme poverty, universal primary education, gender equality, reduced child mortality, improved maternal health, overcoming incidence of HIV, tuberculosis and other major diseases, sustainable environments and effective development partnerships between richer and poorer countries. Overall, for Kenya, as for sub-Saharan African countries, progress toward these eight goals was mixed and uneven. More progress was achieved…

By Ahmednasir Abdullahi, SC The country is smarting from yet another terror attack and remains at a loss on how to permanently deal with the problem. And while quick solutions are needed, it’s of uttermost importance that we exercise patience and sobriety when dealing with the issue. Calm in the face of peril is the ultimate show of resilience. But, we cannot talk solutions without appreciating the problem. While it may seem obvious that all Kenyans want is to feel and be safe, the truth is that oftentimes when crises have presented us with opportunities to rethink our society, we…

More than a dozen national elections will be held across Africa next year. All 55 members of the African Union (AU) are obligated to hold regular and ostensibly democratic elections. Is all this electoral activity helping to entrench democracy as the foundation for national and regional security, development and integration? Or have elections become the means for demagogues to grab power—or, more typically, for powerful elites and authoritarian rulers to entrench themselves? Democratic theory prescribes credible elections as a necessary, but insufficient means, to consolidate real democracy. Real democracy typically abets peace and security. National circumstances vary. Most deadly conflicts…

By Jared Juma The year 2018 has closed its eyes on Miguna Miguna without his much anticipated “grand return” and the promised “dramatic showstopper” in the political scene as Nairobi Deputy Governor. Considering that the man had initially run against Governor Mike Sonko, it would have been interesting to see the two work together – or make the attempt to. Alas, the conclusion to this brief thriller is a matter for another time. Miguna, in his brilliant, brazen eloquence – a diligent worker who has made it clear he has very limited time for political weaklings and cowards – seems…

Over a dozen novels and almost five decades, the Somali writer Nuruddin Farah has chronicled the effects on ordinary lives of his country’s upheavals. Some of his characters stay put amid the turmoil; others return from exile and try to fit in, remain afloat and make sense of the chaos around them. In “North of Dawn”, Farah charts the fortunes of a Somali family who leave Kenya for Europe. In this absorbing story, the stakes are raised. Mugdi and Gacalo feel their safe world implode when their Norwegian raised son returns to Somalia, embraces jihadism and kills himself in a…

By Henry Munene In 1986, Kevin Shillington, an independent English scholar and author of A History of Africa, approached Ugandan guerrilla fighter Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and impressed upon the newly installed president the need to record the success of his struggle against Idd Amin Dada and Milton Obote in a book. Although Museveni thought it was a brilliant idea, he reckoned that he would be hard pressed for time, what with the war going on and placing lots of demands on him. So a deal was struck. Shillington would bring a voice recorder and interview the man who would become…

Technology is often blamed for destroying traditional working-class jobs in sectors like manufacturing and retail. But blue collar jobs aren’t the only ones at risk. The legal profession — tradition-bound and labour-heavy — is on the cusp of a transformation in which artificial-intelligence platforms dramatically affect how legal work gets done. Those platforms will mine documents for evidence that will be useful in litigation, to review and create contracts, raise red flags within companies to identify potential fraud and other misconduct or do legal research and perform due diligence before corporate acquisitions. Those are all tasks that — for the…

By Tabitha Griffith Saoyo & Nerima Were “We find that NHIF is not even minimally transparent. If the corporation is going to continue to increase its management share of public health resources, and to eventually act as the principal financier in a universal health insurance scheme in Kenya, it must improve its transparency and financial management practices” – J. Lakin & V. Magero On December 22, 2017, then Acting Chief Executive Officer of Kenyatta Hospital issued an internal memo indicating the transfer of free maternity services to the National Hospital Insurance Fund, a national government body established under the NHIF…

By Edwin Musonye and Patrick Musindi According to Richard S. Beth, modifications are [usually used in]supplementing or superseding existing laws; and may be done at each separate points or on an entire provision desired. This stance reinforces the need for categorizing modification of the constitution into being either a change/replacement, amendment, alteration, adjustment or revision. Such a framework has three practical applications. Promotes ‘neatness’ This enables developing guidelines such as the time-spans allowed before certain modifications can be made. Establishing well-known period for modification activities boosts democracy. Citizenry are prepared early and there are no rooms for ambush. This line…

By Edwin Musonye and Patrick Musindi The word referendum has been made to mean-constitution modifying process. In most laymen (and even expert) discussions, there is intimation that modifying the document by the popular initiative must involve the referendum exercise. But, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, the plebiscite is the furthest last resort. Going by a commonplace opinion, the document is 20 percent faulty. Unfortunately, the defective provisions are unknown. Therefore, concerned parties suggest arbitrary issue – those peculiar only to them. Determining what will be universally accepted as being the ‘real’ inadequacy, in our humble estimation, may…