Author: NLM Correspondent

Way back in the 1980’s, after Out Of Africa was released, there was a miniseries on CBS called Shadow On The Sun starring Stephanie Powers as Markham. I vaguely remember a scene were Powers as Markham says “I’ve flown the Atlantic” in a really terrible English accent. Born in England but raised in Kenya, Beryl Markham was a notorious beauty. She trained race horses and had scandalous affairs, but she is most remembered for being a pioneering aviatrix. She became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make it from London to New York…

BY Arkan Udin Who am I? Catholic? Christian? Kikuyu? Kenyan? Am I all of them at once? Or is it the other way around –Africa then Bantu and so on? Or does it depend on time of day? Place? Or on who is asking? What is an African? Who are you? Somali? Kenyan-Somali? Somalian-Somali? Apologies, Somaliland-Somali? Cushite? Who decides? Who are we? Blacks? Africans? Kenyans? Somalis? Arabs? African Arabs? Who decides? Who are they? British? Foreigners? Kenyan-British? Immigrants? French? Italian? Ndorobo? Europeans? Whites? Who decides? What should we be? Can we decide? Does it matter? What makes us connect? What…

By Benson Kaya The Kenyan legal framework on consumer law protection is markedly stunted. The reason is that it has failed to address new aspects of consumer trends. Technological advancements have left our laws lagging. Disappointingly, our consumer framework is left playing catch up! Kenyan laws, generally, are borrowed from jurisprudentially advanced jurisdictions like the United Kingdom. Recently, the United Kingdom enacted commercially sound and consumer friendly legislation, The Consumer Rights Act, 2015 (CRA). This splendid legislation, consolidates and reforms key areas of interest. The two major areas of concern were consumer rights and remedies in respect of goods, services…

BY Shadrack Muyesu Unlike other (un)professional labour markets which thrive on internal promotions, law is considered to be highly open with a lot of room for lateral entry. Legal practice is defined by turbulence and unpredictability. Add that to the numerous restrictive guidelines (such as rules against advertising) on which the profession is anchored, and loyalty to a particular firm immediately seems detrimental to a self-serving lawyer. The question becomes, why should I stay and chase another’s dreams when I can curve my own niche in private practice or pursue more lucrative engagement elsewhere? Yet this is not a blanket…

BY NLM Writer Early this year, the Hague Institute for Innovation Law (together with the Kenya Judiciary and the World Bank) unveiled the 2018 Kenya Justice Needs Survey. This survey of 6005 Kenyans in 28 counties paints a picture of not only what legal problems Kenyans across the country face, but also of how they seek access to justice. An estimated 17.9 million Kenyans (63% of adult Kenyans) have experienced legal problems in the past 4 years, with crime, land issues, family disputes and employment being the most frequently occurring legal issues cited. 23% of women reported family disputes to…

BY Nimo Kering The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect this month on the 25th. It mainly provides for the protection of personal data of EU citizens (also called data subjects) residing in the European Union. Companies which are not established in the EU but process personal data of data subjects who are in the EU are subject to the GDPR. A Kenyan entity either offering goods and services or monitoring the behaviour of an EU citizen residing within the EU would be subject to the GDPR. A key issue addressed by the GDPR is pseudonymisation – defined…

By Victor Hezekiah Faced with a racialised political crisis that threatened to derail his campaign to become the first African American president of the U.S, Barack Obama delivered a speech on race, “A more Perfect Union”. That speech remains one of the most powerful on race. What makes it powerful, however, is not that it was electrifying or the oratory skills employed in its delivery. It is powerful because it revealed the real America to the Americans. Courageously, but with profound honesty and respect, Obama opened up for debate the most volatile topic in the USA – that of race.…

By Newton Arori ‘The courts have never accepted res judicata as an absolute principle of law which applies rigidly in all circumstances irrespective of the injustice’ – The Court of Appeal of Singapore in Management Corporation Stratta Title Plan No.301 v. Lee Tat Development Pte Ltd [2009] S GHC 234. It is a settled legal principle that once a matter has been decided by a court of competent jurisdiction, the same matter cannot be reopened. This is the principle of res judicata, which is Latin for ‘the thing has been decided.’  The doctrine of res judicata in Kenyan law is…

By David Onjili The failure of our current education system has been discussed in many forums. Yet, I find there is an angle to it that few have considered: taxation and, with it, adding streams of income that create financial independence. It is common knowledge that parents will sell an arm and leg to finance their children’s education, the reason being that good education translates into employability and thus a good salary, which, in turn, translates into a comfortable life. The error in this thinking is that we view our jobs – and subsequently salaries – as assets. But, if…

BY NLM Writer ves is integrated with technology, from the way we are taught at school to the way we handle simple tasks like communicating. It has extended to corporate space where it has had major disruptions. One area that has experienced this disruption is the financial sector, which has seen piecemeal change – from the introduction of the credit and debit cards to the establishment of digital currencies. The more the sector applies digital innovation, the more efficient and competitive it becomes, which, in turn, continues to drive disruption, especially in the capital markets, lending, payment, and wealth management…