Author: NLM Correspondent

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…

By SHADRACK MUYESU Discrimination is not a result of like or dislike. As Dr Claud Anderson observes, all forms of discrimination occur in the absence of economic empowerment.   “To earn recognition, the black man must first achieve economic wellness. The surplus gained from creating wealth should then be invested in politics.” In his five stages of liberation, he doesn’t give much regard to voting as a source of citizen power, advocating, instead, for the buying of every politician of influence and ability to look out for the rights of the small man. “Wealth and political power deliver the integrity of…

By Kenyatta Otieno I believe I am a progressive African. I also know that some of the things we borrow, however noble, won’t survive the test of time. The irony is that I am a culture enthusiast, who believes that it is not prudent for Africans to drop their culture blindly in favour of Western ways of life. This is why I sometimes find myself in mental conflict. My mind and heart jump into the ring often and, to me, the battle in the war is to keep a consistent thought process. Seth Disembe, a Twitter user, recently posted a photo…

She wears many hats. Outside of being an Advocate of the High Court, Maria Mbeneka is also the Vice President of the East Africa Law Society, LSK Council Member, Chair Ghetto Radio, Mother, wife and First Lady Laikipia County. She loves the outdoors – walking, running, hiking. Out of legal text, she voraciously consumes fiction, where she has a bias for African writers. Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is her ‘absolute favourite’. She is currently reading Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram. She always knew she’d be a lawyer, and set about preparing for that calling from a young age. She admired the…