Author: NLM Correspondent

For many of Kenya’s public thieves – who cannot as much as blush even when caught with their hands in the purse – the current highly-advertised war on graft could be but a temporary inconvenience – one they could wait it out and proceed, like nothing ever happened. This is what we risk if we do not get the strategy right. Some of the measures initiated by the President to check runaway graft seem to have had an abortive start, with the so-called lifestyle audit – conducted under a shroud of secrecy by a panel that contains shady individuals itself…

By Emeka-Mayaka Gekara Amidst intense political calls for the revival of the Pan Paper Mills in Bungoma, President Uhuru Kenyatta toured the facility and paraded members of the Rai family, led by Jaswant Rai, as the new investors. Jaswant is the chair of the Rai Group while his brother, Tajveer, is the managing director of West Kenya Sugar Ltd. The Rai Group owns Raiply Ltd, which has spread its wings to Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. It is also Kenya’s second largest sugar miller through its West Kenya Sugar and Sukari Industries in Homa Bay. It is also Uganda’s second largest…

By TNLM Writer Life has been everything but a bed of roses for the Rai family. Hardly does the dust settle on a longstanding business dispute between its members than another arises, revealing a family that has been at pains to accept some of its own. Then there is the flour saga, allegations of ill treatment of employees and high stakes corruption. At the centre of it all is the ownership and control of Rai Plywoods Limited (Raiply) – Kenya’s largest agro forestry concern. Raiply was established in 1971 by family patriarch Tarlochan Singh Rai, who then distributed a stake…

By Payton Mathau In January 2017, a lavish wedding between Gavneet Chatthe and Rajbir Rai was celebrated at the Sarova Mara Game Camp within Maasai Mara. Several prominent businessmen and politicians attended the lavish invite-only ceremony, among them Deputy President William Ruto. Clearly, the Rai Family enjoys a cordial relationship with the DP. He, however, is neither the first nor the only one. The family has enjoyed close association with the Daniel Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta governments for over four decades, and has reaped handsomely from the resultant political patronage. The Family – made up of patriarch Tarlochan…

BY Peter Wanyonyi Recent tidings out of Addis Ababa and Asmara make for interesting geopolitical reading. Last month, the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea ended decades of armed hostility between their two countries. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki set aside an acrimonious history and agreed to re-establish ties between the two states. Progress from then on was super-swift: Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s leading airline by some distance, immediately set up flights to Eritrea from Ethiopia; and immigration ties between the two nations were re-established, with citizens of the two countries receiving visa waivers when visiting the…

Every year South African investigative journalists are recognised for their hard work when the winners of the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism are announced. This year provided a chance to assess the highs and the lows of our investigative reporting after an extraordinary year. For the last few years, it seemed that South Africa was facing an impervious culture of impunity. Many state institutions of accountability faltered, and corruption appeared to be undermining democracy and destroying the economy. But small groups of investigative journalists beavered away. They pieced together the elements of what grew into a remarkable story of…

By TNLM Writer The promise of instant millions for digital broadcasters, many who were struggling to break even amidst stiff competition from established media, was too tempting to let go. The Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) was promising between Sh2m and Sh4million for each of the 20 digital broadcasters to run adverts to show the progress made in the first term of the Jubilee administration ahead of the August 8, 2017 General Election (#GoKDelivers and #JubileeDelivers adverts). This roughly translated to Sh1 million per month, which, by any standards, would have been a huge revenue boost for the upstart broadcasters. With…

By TNLM Writer After almost four years, when nothing has gone on at the site of the Hazina Towers within Nairobi’s central business district, the contractor, China Jiangxi, slapped National Social Security Fund (NSSF) with a Sh6.9 billion bill as compensation claims over project delays. The compensation demand was contentious but the contractor argued that the fee was commensurate with the time its equipment and personnel were not able to work as NSSF fought in court with Nakumatt Supermarkets, who had moved to court to stop the construction. Eventually, an idling fee of Sh1.9 billion seems to have been agreed…

By Joel Okwemba While our ancestors have been around for millennia, industrialisation began in earnest only in the 1800s. The First Industrial Revolution could be said to have birthed Capitalism, with the growth of economies through the innovation of steam engines and printing that transformed transport, communication and energy systems. The Second Revolution was characterised by the innovation of electricity and driven by political capitalism, where according to Gabriel Kolko, “the businessmen took firmer control of the political system because the private economy was not sufficient enough to forestall protest from below”. The Third one (currently taking shape) can be said…

BY Alexander Opicho Literature on feminism and domestic politics in Africa has been known to be a preserve of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, but things seem to be taking a new direction, with the release of a new anthology of essays on feminism in February. Edited by Jen Thorpe and published by Kwela Books in South Africa, the title of the anthology is Feminism – a collection of essays that assembles writings by over thirty African feminists who lovingly and insightfully dissect every aspect of feminist ideals and the politics they inspire. Thorpe is a published poet, and is well-known in…