Author: NLM Correspondent

By Dr Tom Odhiambo There has been public debate in media in recent times, about who between the student and the teacher is the culprit when course marks “disappear” in universities. Some professors have ventured to defend their turf, often trying to show that the students are to blame for engaging in all manners of chicanery to graduate without attending class. Of course when students respond, they simply laugh at such teachers, rightly so, I think. Why? Because when marks are “lost”, as students are generally told, it is the height of irresponsibility by the teachers. Period. If the lecturer…

The news that South Africa, under new president Cyril Ramaphosa may turn to expropriating white farmers who still control an overwhelming proportion of the country’s rural land, should resonate with Kenyans who know (or remember) how a comparable problem was handled during the country’s transition to independence.  On balance, I think one would agree that for all the corruption, controversy, and not insignificant violence surrounding land politics in Kenya in the fifty-five years since its independence, Kenya is still in a better place today on land issues as a consequence of its transfer programs than South Africa, or Zimbabwe with…

By Chelsea Johnson Among policymakers and scholars alike, a robust manufacturing sector is broadly understood as a fundamental path to economic growth and development. The most recent illustration is the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018, a single market for goods and services in Africa that aims to unlock manufacturing potential and facilitate industrialization, driving sustainable growth and jobs among other objectives. The key boon of manufacturing is that it absorbs large swaths of workers and places them into productive and decent paying jobs. Throughout history, this exact recipe has transformed the United States,…

From a panoramic hilltop in Kenya’s northern frontier, Anthony Bourdain reflected one last time at the unlikeliness of his own success. Sitting next to comedian W. Kamau Bell, the legendary chef and television personality said that every time “the cameras turn off” and he’s sitting around with his crew, “I pinch myself.” He continued, “I cannot believe that I get to do this. Or see this, ever. Or that I ever would, because 44 years ago, dunking fries, I knew, with absolute certainty, that I would never, ever see Rome, much less this.” Those words were captured in the inaugural…

By Emeka-Mayaka Gekara When Mohun Biswas, the protagonist in VS Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas,  moves his family to their new abode, he is concerned about the his wife’s nagging. He regards his wife Shama and the children as “alien growths, alien affections, which fed on him and called him away from that part of him which yet remained purely himself, that part which had for long been submerged and was now to disappear.” Despite his poor education, he becomes a journalist, has four children with Shama, and attempts several times to build a house that he can call…

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…