Author: NLM Correspondent

By Ahmednasir Abdullahi, SC In response to untameable graft in the Uhuru administration, some have suggested a government shutdown. Properly speaking, there’s no such thing, but the anger out of which the idea is borne is justifiable. What would occasion a shutdown would be a refusal by Parliament to pass the recently tabled budget, and ours is too derisive do that: the corruption is in the budget, and that is where they thrive. State and public officers can refuse to render services if they are not paid, which would paralyse operations, hence a shutdown of services. The President can also veto…

By Dustin Homer the last mile of a shipment’s journey is inevitably the most expensive – possibly accounting for over 50% of total delivery costs, according to a 2016 report by McKinsey. Now imagine that last mile is in Africa. It may very well be a pot-holed dirt road, set in the middle of one an informal, low income area, where even a ballpark guesstimate of consumer demand is incredibly hard to come by. Many companies are already pushing their products into these emerging markets, yet most experience expensive blind spots in understanding exactly who they are reaching and where…

By Kevin Motaroki It was the doctor’s third prompt that got Morgan angry. “What do you think it is?” She was young, chewing gum, donning earphones, and dressed in tight-fitting slacks under her white doctor’s coat. She looked intelligent, with that air of someone who knows they know or should know their stuff, but an aura that said ‘my shift is about to end and I can’t wait to be out of here’ made her fidgety and unfocused. “You are the doctor here,” he blurted, unable to control himself, “I am not, therefore I come to you… Are you seriously…

Kenya’s founding father Jomo Kenyatta must have also been fluent in Russian too, to an appreciable extent. During Jomo Kenyatta’s 38th memorial service of 22nd August 2016 at Holy Family Cathedral in Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta invited the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga to say a word. Raila Odinga studied in what was then known as East Germany and still remains fluent in German. Raila Odinga spoke of a time around the year 1965, when he had come home on holiday. His father Oginga Odinga was then Kenyan Vice President. Jomo Kenyatta had visited the Odingas at their Kisumu home, and…

By Newton Arori “Application for recusal of a judge is the occupational hazard every judge must face in the course of her/his judicial career. Any judge will tell you that listening to an application for recusal and making a ruling on that application are some of the biggest challenges judges face in the course of their judicial duties. The judge is the subject of the recusal proceedings and yet he/she is expected to rise above the proceedings and determine the matter rationally” – Justice S.N. Mutuku in “Republic v Raphael Muoki Kalungu (2015) eKLR” The Black’s Law Dictionary defines recusal…

By Shadrack Muyesu Considering the industries it sustains, is it not time information was considered a factor of production on its own? Take the law, for instance. For many years, lawyers preyed on the ignorance of the lay person who was not able to access the information they needed because it existed in complex jargon only lawyers could interpret. A lawyer in in his robe was a marvel. He was literally a depository of knowledge whose wisdom was necessary for completing the simplest of transactions and determining the smallest dispute. To amplify Lord Justice Denning, they were the law. Beyond…

By Emmanuel Ekiru In his famous lecture delivered at Fort Hare University, South Africa – The 2010 constitution of Kenya and its interpretation: Reflections from the Supreme Court’s decisions –Emeritus Chief Justice Willy Mutunga underscored the fact that the Constitution has restored “traditional dispute resolution (TDR) mechanisms” with constitutional limitations. He said, “We live in our country where courts are not the only forums for the administration of justice. Traditional disputes resolutions mechanisms keep these institutions as free as possible from the lawyers, ‘their law’ and the ‘law system of the capital’.” Dr Mutunga’s arguments pointed to the fact that…

By Chrispin Bosire The Supreme Court pronounced itself on the status of the mandatory death sentence in resolving the conflict between “Godfrey Ngotho Mutiso v Republic and Joseph Njuguna Mwaura & 2 Others v Republic”. The Supreme Court adopted a cogent analysis of Article 24’s limitation of rights approach, demonstrating a succinct intention to place the country on the path of a robust legal and human rights culture. If this path continues, then the future of the Human Rights discourse in Kenya is bright and subject to tremendous positive progress. The foundational axiom underpinning the penalty is embedded in the…

By Dominic Wabala During his State of the nation speech in early May, President Uhuru Kenyatta revealed that the Anti Counterfeit Agency in 2017 seized goods worth over Sh1.7 billion and destroyed others worth over Sh700 million. Kenya, he said, has been losing over Sh30 billion revenue annually in tax evasion, unlicensed goods and counterfeit leading to loss of jobs and negatively affecting foreign direct investments. “The impact of counterfeit goods spans a very broad scope ranging from consumer goods, cosmetics, automotive parts and pharmaceutical products among others,” the President said in his statement in Parliament. In the same month,…

By David Onjili In line with attaining Kenya’s long term investment needs’, there have been efforts – such as the establishment of the Nairobi International Finance Centre Authority – to align the economy to Vision 20130. The main goal here is to increase the level of activity at the bourse, increase market capitalisation and also increases liquidity to make Nairobi a financial hub. Thus, news of the introduction of a Derivatives Markets has been met with enthusiasm because the bourse currently does not meet the threshold to make Nairobi a financial hub continentally. These are exciting times for those in…