Author: NLM Correspondent

By Victor Adar There is a debate going about why uptake of products of the Capital Market Authority has been low. It is the story of more of companies delisting rather than listing, a shift that could serve to discourage investment at the bourse. The fact that big corporates, including Bidco and Airtel, are not listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), more likely than not sends the message that things may not so rosy. Further, what’s keeping fresh companies from listing? Is it because of low profitability, or losses? Performance of the top 20, highlighted in the NSE 20…

By NLM writer Gulf African Bank recently hosted Nairobi lawyers to a discursive legal sector networking meeting, a move that’s expected to solve the existing 21st Century legal financial requirements faced by legal firms, practicing partners and their institutional clients. Attendees discussed why legal firms really need institutional partners to champion their growth, and why Gulf African Bank particularly is wooing legal practitioners, their firms and clients with customised products. While it seems ordinary for a bank to focus majorly on a certain profession in order to reach a wider target audience, insiders believe that the current drive to embrace customised…

One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy first flowered entirely separately in different parts of the globe at more or less the same time. The origins of Indian, Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy, as well as Buddhism, can all be traced back to a period of roughly 300 years, beginning in the 8th century BC. These early philosophies have shaped the different ways people worship, live and think about the big questions that concern us all. Most people do not consciously articulate the philosophical assumptions they have absorbed and are often not even aware…

With Fred Matiang’i, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior, what you see is what you get. In his words, “there are no two ways about it.” He does not place much emphasis on unravelling himself; that, he says, is the job of the public he serves. He is a state officer after all, and there is no shortage of people who would like to unpackage his life. He is not the kind of person to put fences around himself; if it is pleasing to the mind, he will work with it. To him, for example, all books are as seeming as…

Despite its immense economic potential, owing to its strategic location, Djibouti risks becoming an island of poverty in a sea of wealth as investors make the most of a conducive atmosphere promoted by respective governments in the Horn of Africa region. The Horn of Africa, with an estimated population of over 160 million people, is perched next to the Middle East and along the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes for goods and oil from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. Synonymous with volatility yesteryear, the region is undergoing a makeover and is in the cusp…

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) is scheduled to arraign over twenty Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) employees over a decade long multi-billion shilling grand theft at the oil company. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has also forwarded its investigations files on same cases to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and is awaiting recommendations. The investigations are related to diversion of adulterated fuel worth billions of shillings and procurements payments to fictitious companies that cannot be traced at the Registrar of Companies, and others with fake registration documents. In the latest probe in which senior KPC managers…

By David Wanjala If you have never believed elections are rigged in Kenya, Thursday September 20 provided the perfect testimony. The vote in the National Assembly on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s austerity and tax proposals re-enacted the full scripts of most of our seasonal general elections, where losers are blatantly declared winners after results of peaceful voting are corrupted at the tail end of the process to the whims of a few officials entrusted with overseeing the exercise. Of fundamental importance, however, is how the media has been exposed by the events on the floor of the National Assembly, on the…

By Fuad Abdirahman The establishment of the international criminal (ICC) court in 2002 was seen as major victory for global criminal justice efforts. It was mandated with prosecuting sweeping crimes of concern to the international community, which include genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Although it has members in some 123, it lacks the presence of powerful nations like Russia and China, among others. The ICC currently faces major onslaught from two powerful nations with enormous influences around the world: the United States of America and Israel, whose governments have threatened to rip the court into pieces if they…

By Antony Mutunga Increasing intra-African trade does not mean doing less business with the rest of the world. On the contrary, as we trade more among ourselves, African firms will become bigger, more specialised, and more competitive internationally. From now on, the clear wish of everyone is that consultation between business and political leadership, at all levels, and becomes a continuous feature of continental deliberations. – Paul Kagame Many years after colonisation, African countries continue to be dependent on their colonial masters. This dependence is as a result of foreign – often given advanced with preconditions – which many countries…

He is the old boy in the room. This is how an official described Joseph Kinyua’s presence at Cabinet sessions in the Uhuru Kenyatta administration. At 67, Kinyua should have long exited the public service. And he has expressed his intentions to do so. But his boss won’t let him go; not just yet. As head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Kinyua’s main job is to make President Kenyatta’s trains run on time. He leads the bureaucracy that implements the president’s policies and agenda. And because of this, he is easily the most powerful unelected individual in…