Author: NLM Correspondent

Director of the Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji has appointed Queen’s Counsel Prof Khawar Qureshi to lead corruption cases against judicial and government officials. In a notice on December 3, Haji said he picked the London-based professor through single-sourcing after failing to find a suitable candidate through advertisement. The appointment conforms to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, Article 157 (9) of the Constitution and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Act. “Taking into account the transnational nature of the offences, the complexity and the special skills required to maintain the integrity of the process, the DPP…

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced a new commitment to reach 100,000 learners across Africa over the next three years through HP Foundation’s HP LIFE Program. The Palo Alto, California-based Technology firm kicked off the commitment by opening an HP LIFE Centre in South Africa on Nov. 30, 2018 – a technology-enabled hub to facilitate learning, collaboration and entrepreneurship in a physical, face-to-face setting. The HP LIFE Centre was opened in collaboration with institutions such as the Ekurhuleni West TVET College in Katlehong and its Centre of Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator. By 2030, Africa will be home to 32 percent of the population…

By Prof John Harbeson South Africa’s government appears to be actively considering amending the Constitution to permit some degree of expropriation of land without compensation to the owners. South Africa’s Constitution states that land may only be expropriated for a public purpose or in the public interest provided that any such expropriation is “subject to compensation,” the amount and the timing of payment for which must be agreed to by the parties involved or by a court. A parliamentary motion approving expropriation without compensation approved in February of this year passed with 75 percent voting in favour. The administration of President…

By Ahmednasir Abdullahi, SC critiquing the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown vs Board of Education, the celebrated legal scholar, Herbert Wechsler, theorised the role of the Courts in the following terms: “While the Supreme Court cannot escape the duty of deciding whether actions of the other branches of Government are consistent with the Constitution, when a case is properly before them, what mattered most was the standard to be followed in interpretation of the Constitution. Rather than seeking to right the individual wrong, a correctly decided case is one that rests on reasons with respect…

By Ahmednasir Abdullahi, SC The conjunctive efforts of the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and his DCI counterpart George Kinoti have finally lent some credence to the Uhuru Kenyatta-led war against graft. Prior to their appointment, the only other time Kenyans had been this optimistic about defeating corruption was in the early days of Mwai Kibaki’s first term. At that time, buoyed by the feel-good factor of a fresh regime, unity of purpose and a nasty hangover from the dark days of Daniel Moi, citizens were literally arresting corrupt public officers and frog-marching them to police stations for booking.…

By Prof John Harbeson One of the most fundamental and timeless conceptual and practical policy issues in the multi-disciplinary literature of the social sciences concerns the connections between the political and economic dimensions of development. Indeed, the problem is so fundamental that it is rarely confronted boldly and directly. And yet, it is so fundamentally important existentially that wrestling with it is inescapable on a daily basis, by scholars and practitioners of development policy in and on African countries as well as those of other post-colonial regions of the world. The notion that one of the latest theories of Asian…

Business between the US and Africa just took a step forward.   The US Senate passed the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act, and it was signed into law Oct 5. For at least thirty years, the US’s commercial relationship with Africa has been dominated by resources underground. Oil, gas and minerals account for about half of all US direct investment in Africa. There has been growth in almost every sector of Africa’s economy, but commercial relations with the US have been dominated by US engagement in natural resources. The BUILD Act establishes a new entity, new…

By Fuad Abdirahman Nyali MP Mohamed Ali is a perfect example of what politics does to a “rational” man. A celebrated investigative journalist who never shied away from criticising the government of the day, Moha Jicho Pevu, as he was popularly known, had branded himself as straight-shooting, fearless and uncompromisable. He brought his audiences investigative pieces at great risk to his life, at one time fleeing the country after refusing a Sh1 million bribe to kill one on the drug trade. He used his considerable following on social media to call out corrupt politicians; his list included Deputy President William…

Since the promulgation of the constitution in August 2010, Senators have consistently called for constitutional amendments to “give life and meaning to the Senate.” Surprisingly, when the harmonised draft Constitution was finally presented for Kenyans to comment upon, the majority of voters focused their minds on the structure of the National Executive. As they debated and fought over whether the National Executive should be presidential or parliamentary, the structure of Parliament did not even feature in the top ten concerns of the electorate. It did not receive the attention given to Kadhi’s courts, abortion and representation by gender, land or…

Migration, both to urban areas and abroad, risks depriving African countries of the young people they need to modernize their agriculture sectors, which are key to achieving growth and prosperity, the UN reports. “It is crucial that African countries also look at rural areas for agro-industrialization that can provide more opportunities for young people to find employment and remain in small villages and rural areas,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at a conference last month. According to the official, those who migrate from rural to urban areas are five times more likely to move abroad. Graziano made the…