Author: NLM Correspondent

By Edwin Musonye One great wrong in modern Kenya is the sustenance of the permanent and pensionable employment contracts in public service. This practice undermines the principles of equity and equality, given that some citizens are favoured to earn from taxes whilst the rest are only destined to pay those taxes. In the early times following independence, the allocation of the jobs was based on attainment of formal education. And because only few people had such a qualification, most citizens were recruited directly from school under the Africanisation programme, to fill positions left vacant by the colonialists returning home. Unfortunately,…

By Kevin Motaroki The United Nations projects that Africa will have some 1.7 billion people by 2030, and 2.6 billion by 2050. This projected growth poses a real socio-economic challenge because, with its current 1.2 billion people, the continent has perennially fallen short of its food production targets, creating worrying shortages and contributing to the global food crisis. To plug the deficit and forestall future food shortages, the continent needs to produce at least 80 percent more food than it currently does – to both guarantee its food needs and to avoid its overreliance on imports, or aid in dire…

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet last month warned the mass deportation of Congolese nationals from Angola has already resulted in serious human rights violations by security forces on both sides of the border, and left at least 330,000 returnees in an extremely precarious situation. Since the beginning of October, some 330,000 people have reportedly crossed from Angola, mostly into the Kasai, Kasai Central and Kwango provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, following an expulsion order by the Government of Angola targeting irregular migrants. In interviews with people in the border town of Kamako in Kasai, the…

By Oscar Okwaro Our political landscape has undergone immense metamorphosis – from an overwhelming sense of patriotic citizenship imbued with nationalism and the commitment to curb illiteracy, poverty and diseases, to a country of systemic ethnic divisions that only find amity at election time. Whereas the patriotism of yesteryears is embedded in the likes of Musalia, they miss out big when critical discourses of national significance are shaped, often on ethnic considerations. The puzzle remains: must leaders convert to ethnic politics to ascend to the presidency? Kenya needs a unifier to usher this nation into a “new dawn”. But who…

By NLM Writer The year was 2005. As one of Equity Bank’s major shareholders, Africap Fund, was leaving, a decision was made that instead of floating the shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, employees would be given the chance to own a part of one of the most profitable banks in the country. “I am pleased to inform you that we successfully concluded the purchase of shares from Africap Fund at the modest price of Sh136 per share. The total purchase price was paid to Africap Fund who have transferred the shares to the trust. Equity Bank Employee Share Ownership…

By ANTONY MUTUNGA The World Youth Organisation places the youth – those aged between 10 and 24 years – at 1.8 billion, or 25 percent of the global population. Sadly, this formidability has not translated into robust policy and practice for their welfare. Africa, which accounts for the largest segment of this figure, has one of the largest rates of youth unemployment in the world. World Bank studies say the youth in Africa account for 60 percent of the jobless. In fact, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), in most African countries youth unemployment occurs at a rate that…

By Joel Okwemba The very nature of soft power in the 21st Century seems to imply a disassociation with real effects of violence and critical security. However, the intricate nature of the utilisation of “soft power” to achieve the benefits of “hard power” demands a compound approach for long lasting stability in view of the changing International Order. It is evident that what is classified as “soft power” is among the first targets for terrorist groups – for instance religious and cultural heritage sites and Educational institutions in the case of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Taliban in Pakistan.…

BY NLM writer The story of the Kenyan State has mostly been written from the heart, seldom from the head. George Orwell, in his fictional, allegorical barnyard, called it primitive patriotism – championed by political figures who “cordon themselves off with protective layers of unquestioning followers around them.” The choices made are fashioned to tell and sustain stories of hot-air gallantry. Justice Aaron Ringera, as chair of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, spent a great deal of his time at State House. He was buddies with President Mwai Kibaki; after all, the President had re-appointed him when politicians and legislators had…

By Payton Mathau Last month, the Firearms Licensing Board (FLB), the premier private firearms regulatory body, cancelled the licenses of all gun dealers and shooting ranges countrywide in a quest to control use of weapons. In a move seen to have been effected at the behest of the National Intelligence Service, all licenses for the twenty-one registered gun dealers and shooting ranges where all licensed individual gun holders practise, were suspended forthwith. Meanwhile, the FLB moved the Central Firearms Bureau (CFB) from Nairobi Area to Mandera Road in the leafy Kileleshwa suburb, as it initiated efforts to streamline issuance and management of firearms and ammunition in the country. An intelligence brief shared with…

On its way to dismissing the appeal and affirming the High Court’s Judgment, the Court of Appeal made what we consider a pronouncement of jurisprudential import. The Court stated thus: “Unless a trust is proved, the respondents have neither possessory nor occupational rights that can be protected as overriding interests… We hasten to add that to prove a trust in land; one need not be in actual physical possession and occupation of the land.” In so asserting, the Appellate Court was echoing (and therefore affirming) an earlier holding by the High Court in James N. Kiarie v. Geoffrey Kinuthia &…