Author: NLM Correspondent

By Kennedy Lumwamu In yet another first in Family Law, the Court of Appeal in divorce cause No. 1 of 2000, has provided direction on how to handle marital matters. The Court has rescinded a decision by the High Court which had awarded maintenance costs to a man after he parted ways with his wife in a running divorce case going back to three years ago. It allowed a petition in which the woman had contested a decision by the High Court to have her pay her former husband Sh20,000 maintenance costs per month for the rest of his life.…

By Sunday Memba To determine whether a student of law is worth his salt, teachers of law usually seek to know if the student is familiar with certain elementary cases. Jurists call them locus classicus decisions. These cases include Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100, Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1893] 1 QB 256 and Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1) 137 (1803). Away from these, Rylands v. Fletcher [1868] UKHL 1 stands out as one of the most celebrated decisions from the House of Lords. It is hard to imagine that the Supreme Court of Kenya can move…

BY Shadrack Muyesu The Law of Succession Act No 14 of 1972 contemplates three ways by which the property of a deceased person may pass to their beneficiaries. Property may pass by dint of a will, survivorship or otherwise, under rules of intestacy – where the deceased left no will or the will left was improper. From the foregoing, a beneficiary is only entitled to what the deceased transmits to them or what the law allows them, never mind, as in the case of a surviving spouse, their contribution to the acquisition of the property in question. In my view,…

BY malusi world From the time of the first industrial revolution that introduced the steam engine to the current revolution that very much revolves around technology in almost every sector, the world is constantly evolving. Thanks to the fourth industrial revolution, the business ecosystem around the globe has changed – for the better might I add – due to the integration of new technologies and the rising interconnection of systems. However, despite Industry 4.0 bringing about opportunities to optimise costs, innovation, diversification and agility, it also brings with it new risks such as cyber-attacks. This is quite the problem, as…

By Victor Adar One of the commonest forms of financial service scams is SIM swap fraud, which over 90% of Kenyan banking leaders identify as an issue for their organisations. When a customer lets their operator know that their SIM card is damaged, lost or stolen, the SIM is deactivated and a new one is issued. Since-last year, incidences of SIM card fraud have risen, perhaps testament to the fact that this recently prevalent crime has gained in the country. In response, although not specifically targeted at this particular crime, government enacted the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act (2018), a…

BY Antony Mutunga In the recently read budget, government well and truly angered Kenyans when it suggested some measures to entrench the feeling that it works against the common man, and to the benefit of the wealthy elites. The tax sector is one of the areas that witnessed many amendments, and left many Kenyans, particularly those in the low earning brackets, feeling that the government was pushing them too hard in finding the money to fund the Big Four Agenda. This is even after the taxpayers have witnessed billions of their money being squandered as a result of corruption, an…

BY Albert Mwazighe For a long time now, our country has experienced the same old cycle of people who, after going to school, start the tedious journey of looking for a job in their field of study. I hold the view that there is no problem with gaining an education; the elephant in the room is the lack of job opportunities for skilled youth! As an about-to-graduate youth, I reflect on the bad year-in-out reality with a heaviness of heart. How can the government, through its Council for Higher Education (CHE), continue to allow the teaching of obsolete courses which…

By TNLM Writer Often, operational investment decisions are the result, at least in part, of the ability to fill needed skill sets from accessible talent pools. As more countries enter the global competition for talent, innovative policies for resolving this tension have emerged, including preferential visa regimes and quota procedures. One region that has tended to lag is Africa. While the free movement of labour is a principle enshrined in certain sub-regional agreements, often it is either not ratified or effectively implemented, while in other parts of Africa obstacles to mobility, even of talented Africans, are prohibitive, time consuming or…

Uganda doubles down on hot social media tax After a brief review period, Ugandan regulators have decided to double down on both the decision to charge citizens a daily levy for access to social media, and the controversial reasoning behind it. Since July 1, Ugandans have been paying 200 Uganda shillings ($0.05) a day to use social media. Whoever didn’t pay was blocked from accessing sites and apps; to get round the blockade, many people have been using virtual private networks rather than pay the social media tax. As a result of a recent meeting between Museveni and MPs, the tax is…

By David Onjili In 2013, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) launched The Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS), to provide more long-term finance options to Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs). This was in recognition to a survey by FSD Kenya and the World Bank which noted that only 23.4% of SMEs had access to credit from banks, a situation made worse with the introduction of the interest capping rates in September 2016. Through GEMS, SMEs that had been in operation for more than one year without necessarily being profitable could still be listed in the bourse. By September 2013, GEMS had…