Author: NLM Correspondent

NLM Writer I will paraphrase the words of Martin Luther King: all we say to Kenya is “be true to what it set on paper”. If we lived in China, Rwanda, Ethiopia or any other totalitarian country, maybe we would understand some of the events that are taking place. Maybe then we would properly contextualise the curtailing of the principles of basic human rights, because those countries have committed themselves to that. There is provided for, freedom of the press, the right to (dual) citizenship, the right to association/assembly… and so on. Right now, nobody knows what government is planning now…

By Arkan Uddin On January 30th 2018, we witnessed the truth of Bob Marley’s chant of April 17th 1980 at the birth of the country he named his now famous song after, Zimbabwe. He promised we would “…know the true revolutionaries”, and on January 30th 2018, we did. We honour the Luo Nation. It has reminded us who we are – the way of men. That all a man is, is his word. No man, now nor in the future, will invoke your name in vain. The Luo Nation stood true to its pledge. The soldiers torched their ships, not…

By Tioko Ekiru Emmanuel The Supreme Court sits at the top of the Judiciary. It is a unifying force, which is why its decisions are binding to all courts below it. Looked at this way, the primary role assigned to this institution by the Constitution is to see to it that laws are executed and properly obeyed. Similarly, the court is supposed to be the leading actor in developing holistic interpretation of the Constitution and other relevant laws, whose standing ideals is to transform society into one which human dignity, freedom and equality lie at the heart of new the…

By Shadrack Muyesu Often unsaid about Marbury v Madison is that the Supreme Court did not demonstrate judicial independence in an order but only asserted it in dicta. Apart from brief, sporadic spells of renaissance, courts have, since then, followed this trend. They rarely stand up to the Executive. Its perhaps time we asked ourselves, is Marbury the powerful authority (on judicial independence) it is made out to be? More importantly, considering the obvious conflict between legal text and historical reality, will the Judiciary ever be an equal partner in government? The Judiciary is a weak species. In the words…

By Cytonn Investments Over the last few years, Kenya’s rising public debt has been a point of discussion in most macroeconomic outlook discussions, with organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global credit rating agencies (Moody’s Credit Rating Agency, S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch Ratings) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), among others, raising concerns. Most recently, on February 14, Moody’s downgraded the government’s issuer rating to “B2” from “B1” previously, based on the observation that as the country’s financing needs continue to grow and the government turns to external commercial loans to fund the deficit,…

This month, the Embassy of Japan hosts a workshop to review the implementation of the commitments made during the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) VI Summit in Nairobi in August 2016. But it is clear that after the summit, Japan is powerfully pivoting towards Africa. In February, the Japanese auto dealer, AA Japan, opened new offices in Nairobi to tap into the growing market for used cars in East Africa. In Kenya alone, the company’s sales have expanded by 38 per cent in the past two years from about 3,000 units in 2015 to 4,800 units in 2017.…

COMPARISONS with dark chapters in Jewish history tend to elicit the kneejerk Israeli response of asur le’hashvot, the Hebrew for “you can’t compare”. But a government plan to deport more than 34,000 African migrants to Rwanda is provoking more hand-wringing than usual, not least because Israel itself was created by refugees and survivors of the Holocaust. The government has proposed a plan to offer financial incentives including the payment of $3,500 (Sh350,000) to African migrants who agree to leave Israel “voluntarily” and go to Rwanda or Uganda. It said that those who do not agree to leave may be expelled…

AFRICA has been invaded on quiet wings. First they landed by ship in the west. Then they spread across the continent, wreaking havoc as they went. Now, two years later, the invaders are worrying officials in almost every sub-Saharan country. It’s not the French, British or even the Chinese. This time it’s a simple American moth, the voracious fall armyworm, which has marched through Africa’s fields and is threatening to cause a food crisis. When just a hungry caterpillar, the fall armyworm will happily munch on more than 80 plant species. But its favourite is maize—the staple for more than…

The two men were political allies. But they had a falling out over the direction of newly independent Kenya — especially over land and power — and became bitter adversaries. Now their sons are fighting a modern adaptation of the same battle as they vie to lead the country, pushing one of Africa’s youngest and most vibrant democracies to the brink of a constitutional crisis. “History is not exactly repeating itself,” says Maina Kiai, a human rights lawyer in Kenya, describing the eerie political parallels between past and present, “but it certainly is rhyming.” Politically, Kenya is deeply — and…

By Peter Mukora I would like to offer a rebuttal to Kenyatta Otieno’s article in the January issue, titled A Luo problem, or a problem with the Luo? ​I am a proud Kenyan who has worked hard for everything I have and own. I have many friends, from across the many tribes of Kenya, some known from high school in Kanunga, Kiambu – a school whose head back then was a Luo man from Homa Bay, for whom we demonstrated when the ministry of education attempted to transfer him from Kiambu to Baringo. Broderick Ogange was loved by all students and feared in…