Author: NLM Correspondent

Okwaro Oscar Plato Prof Wole Soyinka may have been the first African to win a Nobel Prize in literature, but he is a man whose fame does not resonate substantially, in regard to the appreciation of some of his works beyond academic circles. His readers observe his works are abstract and employ archaic jargon. The aim of this piece, however, is not to strike Soyinka’s persona, but to demonstrate that any good work of literature must communicate to and resonate with readers. Perhaps Soyinka does not share the orientation that a writer must not import difficult jargon into his writing…

By Shadrack Muyesu In 2000, Prince was denied admission to the Bar on the basis that he was a bhang smoker who had made it clear in his application that he would never stop. Prince contested the decision and the matter went all the way up to the Constitutional Court of South Africa. His argument was simple: that Marijuana is a religious herb and Rastafarians such as him should be allowed to smoke. The Court agreed. Unfortunately, in so doing it also observed that, there would be no way of determining whether a smoker was doing it for religious or…

By NLM Writer The decision in summary In a landmark ruling delivered on 18th September 2018, the Constitutional Court of South Africa not only confirmed the March 2017 order of the High Court of South Africa declaring Sections 4(b) and 5(b) of the Drugs Act, as read together with Part Three of the Second Schedule of the Act and Sections 22A(9)(a) (i) and 22A(10) of the Medicines Act as read together with seventh schedule of the Act, inconsistent with the right to privacy guaranteed by section 14 of the Constitution, it also expanded the scope of privacy beyond the confines…

Attending court as a witness? If you have to go to court as a witness, you probably have questions about what happens, and how to be a witness. The central concept in our court process is that it is an ‘adversarial process’. This means that a court hearing consists of a contest between two sides, each contending for a different view of the facts. The underlying philosophy is that it is through the waging of such a contest –  that the truth will emerge. As a witness, you assist the court by telling what you know. Summons to give evidence…

BY Newton Arori “It seems a monstrous procedure to inflict further suffering on even a single individual who has already found life so unbearable, his chances of happiness so slender, that he has been willing to face pain and death in order to cease living. That those for whom life is altogether bitter should be subjected to further bitterness and degradation seems perverse legislation” – Anonymous In just 10 years, the number of suicides per year in Kenya has risen by 58 percent. 421 Kenyans took their own lives last year alone. Many more unsuccessfully attempt suicide, and it is…

By Tioko Ekiru Emmanuel The confluence between legal reform and transformation arises because both processes denote some form of change. The major difference between the two is in the nature of change that each process targets to achieve. It could be argued that transformation targets more radical change than legal reform. In contrast, legal reform, even in the cases of comprehensive change, mostly remains grounded in an approach to law in pure and restricted form. Drucilla Cornell, in ‘Transformative, recollective imagination and sexual differences’,’ argues that transformation should be a change not only of a system but of subjects within…

Google has appealed an order to extend the European Union’s “right to be forgotten” to its search engines across the globe, arguing before the EU’s top court that the order encourages countries to assert sovereignty beyond their borders. National laws used to stop at the border. In cyberspace, they increasingly stretch around the world, as regulators in Europe, the US and Canada have started asserting legal authority over the internet across country lines. That is thrusting global tech firms like Google, Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. into a potentially costly legal morass, and setting the stage for conflict over who…

In some striking ways Africa is the most “stable” economic region of the world. Since 1960, many of the parameters that define the continental economy have remained in a fixed ratio to comparative global indicators. Whether it is share of global GDP, world trade, or foreign direct investment (FDI), Africa’s share usually hovers around the 2 percent mark (FDI has inched up to 2.9 percent however). Critical observers usually insist the main source of this “stability” is actually “stagnation”. They point to the fact that Africa “missed” the first two waves of economic transformation, almost completely: the agriculture revolution (in…

The Internet Society, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to the open development, evolution and use of the Internet, last month announced it is partnering with Facebook to develop Internet Exchange Points (IXP) throughout Africa. An Internet Exchange Point is where multiple local and international networks, ISPs and content providers interconnect their networks together to efficiently exchange Internet traffic through an arrangement commonly referred to as Peering. Currently, 42 percent of countries in Africa lack IXPs, which means that most of their domestic Internet traffic is exchanged through points outside their respective country, usually through satellite or submarine fiber across multiple…

By David Onjili In the early days of June 2018, Tilisi Development Limited carried out a survey with 200 respondents to analyse the warehousing demands the nation faces, the findings of which pointed that Kenya does not have adequate warehousing facilities in the right places. For existing ones, they are either substandard or located in the wrong areas characterized by poor infrastructure. More important, noting that food and beverages are the main items stored in these warehouses, the survey raises several health concerns that touch on handling and hygiene. Company directors and operational managers across five industry sectors were involved.…