Author: NLM Correspondent

By Justice George Vincent Odunga I first want to thank the International Commission of Jurists, Kenya Chapter, for conferring this honour upon me. It is an honour I do not take as a personal contribution, but as a collective contribution of the Judiciary of Kenya to the advancement of the Rule of Law. Since the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, several judicial officers have borne the brunt of other arms of Government due to judicial pronouncements arising from the decisions regarding the interpretation and the application of the Constitution. In my respectful view, a great deal of these…

By Emeka-Mayaka Gekara The Appeal Court’s Justice Mohammed Warsame’s re-appointment to the Judicial Service Commission remains in limbo, nine months after he was elected. And while four others – Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, Prof Olive Mugenda, Patrick Gichohi and Felix Kosgey – were sworn-in in November, Justice Warsame could not take office because President Uhuru Kenyatta is yet to gazette his name despite a judgment by the High Court endorsing the manner of his appointment. The swearing-in of the four resolved a quorum hitch that had engulfed the Commission following the departure of Winnie Guchu, Margaret Kobia and Kipng’etich arap…

By Prof John Harbeson I confess that in writing about matters bearing on Kenya’s politics and development and the continent more generally, on several occasions I have realised that I have in effect been writing with my own country in mind at the same time. That has been especially the case this past month as, along with many in my own country I have been thinking about political leadership. The passing of a distinguished US Senator, John McCain, and former president George H. W. Bush, for neither of whom did I vote, has reminded me how critical quality political leadership…

BY NLM WRITER A survey by Transparency International conducted in 2001 ranked the Kenyan Judiciary as the sixth most corrupt public institution in Kenya. In it, a large number of Kenyans who, in one way or another, seek out the services of the Judiciary admitted that they have been in circumstances where they had been asked to pay a bribe. The problem was not only that the Judiciary was corrupt; it was then also considered as hostage to the Executive, where judges were handpicked by the ruling administration. This made it extremely difficult to find independent judges. Eugene Cotran, a Briton who…

By Shadrack Muyesu The decision by Justice Jessie Lessit in ‘Republic v Zacharia Okoth Obado’ [2018] eKLR has to go down as one of the most ludicrous this year. In dismissing the bail application of Migori Governor Zachariah Okoth Obado, while the Court reaffirmed the onus of the Prosecution to prove presence of compelling reasons to deny bail, it took a step back to deny bail in the absence of witness statements and other relevant evidence. In essence, by punishing the applicant for the Prosecution’s failure to avail evidence on time, the Court disregarded the pristine principle of innocence till…

By Dr Willy M. Mutunga The Constitution decrees institutional and decisional independence of both the Judiciary and judicial officers. It does this by (a) decreeing the setting up the Judiciary Fund – to guarantee financial independence from the Executive and Parliament; (b) providing for the recruitment of women and men of integrity; (c) providing for the vetting of judicial officers recruited before the promulgation of the Constitution on August 27, 2010; and (d) setting up an independent Judiciary Service Commission, to oversee the recruitment and disciplinary proceedings against judicial officers and staff. It cannot be denied that the Judiciary continues…

These are remarks made by Fred Ojiambo, MBS, SC, on the occasion of the inaugural sitting of the new Chief Justice, Hon. Mr Justice David Maraga, on Monday November 14, 2016 at the Supreme Court Building, Nairobi “Salutations. My Lord, the Chief Justice, the Hon Mr Justice David Maraga, and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, My Lady, Deputy Chief Justice, Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu, My Lords and Lady, Honourable Justices of the Supreme Court of Kenya, all protocols observed: I appear in these proceedings, upon the invitation of your Lordship, the Chief Justice, in my capacity as Chairman…

By Fuad Abdirahman Kenya police officers manning the porous Kenya-Somalia border allowed and facilitated the entry of Al-Shabaab operatives – with the intention of launching a complex attack in Nairobi – into the country, The Somalia Report 2018, released in November by the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG), reveals. The militiamen passed infiltrated the Somali police as well by paying bribes, the report says, and points to the “warm relationship” between the terrorists and Kenyan officials by consistently receiving money and other forms of gifts from the group. Kenyan police arrested six members of the terror group tasked with…

By Antony Mutunga As far as history dates, agriculture has propped up Africa’s economy – where the majority of its people lead rural, agrarian lives – in a way other sectors haven’t. In fact, the sector is the largest contributor to the continent’s gross domestic product – at 15 percent, according to the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)-FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN) Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025. The continent has vast tracts of arable land, most of them unfarmed. Tropical climates, which bring about long growing seasons, and a growing population that both provides a massive young…

BY KEN OPALA Two simultaneous happenings on the elections day are telling. First, in the deep of the night of August 8, hours after polling, IEBC started beaming “live” the presidential results. Unexpectedly, they were not accompanied by the statutory results forms. But that’s hardly all; the results showed a certain pattern that defied the uneven nature of Kenyan voters – they exhibited a consistent gap between top two contestants, Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta. In panic IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati hurriedly convened a stakeholders’ meeting at the National Tallying Centre (NTC), Nairobi, to seek answers from Safran about this…