Author: NLM Correspondent

African nations need to diversify energy supply, particularly countries reliant on hydropower, industry experts said at an energy conference in Johannesburg last month. The region has been affected by severe droughts in recent years, affecting not only food security but also energy supply in countries that make heavy use of hydropower. Hydropower stations in such countries are at risk, said Langiwe Lungu, executive director of the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) in Zambia, pointing to climate change studies. Zambia’s electricity deficit rose to 1,000 megawatts (MW) in 2016 as severe drought reduced water levels at the Kariba Dam, which generates much…

Across the globe, there are countless ways to show concern and care for each other as countries, nations and communities, and maybe Kenyans and Americans have had particular reasons for doing so this past few months.  But in what would, on the surface, appear different ways—an election crisis in Kenya, and an election, too, in America that, along with other things, won’t go away anytime soon either. But there is another deeper dimension to all this that, as far as I am aware, rarely seems to get much attention. Inaugurations, party conferences, state of the union addresses, Queens’ speeches to…

The Parliamentary Committee on Appointments recently concluded its vetting of nominees to Cabinet. During the process, some candidates, such as Prof Margaret Kobia, came out as vastly experienced, forward thinking and even overqualified. Others, such as Rashid Echesa, although not academically gifted, demonstrated valuable experience gained from private engagement in the relevant sector. For some, like John Munyes, the mutual understanding seemed to be, “he’ll learn on the job”. Nine nominees were vetted – 3 women and 6 men in fulfilment of the 2 thirds gender rule, an achievement the Committee was quick to commend. Among the considerations were academic…

Paul Okwemba Africa was a foreign policy decision. Kenya and almost all the African states were created following a decision of 13 European countries, which also included the United States, and led by the French, British and Germans, to mark their spheres of influences during the Berlin Conference of 1884 (also referred to as the Congo Conference/ West Africa Conference). The Conference, according to the General Act of the Berlin Conference, formalised the beginning of the Scramble for Africa and was motivated by some primary issues: freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo, its embouchures and circumjacent regions;…

By David Onjili In an era littered with pure athletes and raw specimen samples, it is the artists of the football game that separate themselves from the rest. They’re the ones who dictate matches; every game is played at their inspiration once they have ball at their feet; they’re the ones who make their teams tick and, frankly, the ones the fans pay to watch. Egyptian born Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah best fits the above description. He is a player who has and continues to enchant crowds at club and national levels. He has eclipsed goal-scoring records in the process,…

By Alexander Opicho When the Literature Nobel Prize in 2016 went to Bob Dylan, the society of literature scholars in Kenya, as anywhere else in the world, was upset to the extent of concluding that maybe the Swedish are not serious with literature. The complaint was that music is not “literary enough” to get the recognition of literature Nobel Prize. This is when the words “literary purists” and “literary artistes” were used but angrily in several editorial pages of culture-focused magazines and newspapers in an effort to differentiate professional from artistic literati. That was two years ago. Yet again, history…

By Sunday Memba David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, once reflected on humanity and wondered about the ease with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. How is it that a cabinet secretary can prohibit the use of a substance that a populace has embraced as pleasure of their own? Even though our current grundnorm explicitly guarantees that the people’s power can be exercised by our elected representatives, it does provide that this power must be exercised according to the wishes and…

An Austrian privacy activist cannot bring a class action lawsuit against Facebook for alleged privacy violations but can sue the company himself in his home country, the European Union’s highest court ruled last month. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said Max Schrems could bring a case against the US company and benefit from consumer law as an individual, but could not bring claims on behalf of the more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit. Schrems alleges Facebook has illegally violated the privacy rights of European users, including by helping a US spy agency. Facebook rejects his…

By Nimo Kering The principle of blockchain, although still in its inception stages, remains an uncharted territory with respect to its potential impact on legal transactions in Kenya. The cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is a much more familiar concept. While bitcoin is not equivalent to blockchain, it is the database on which bitcoin runs. In the same way the law adapted to the Internet, it will have to adapt to the emergence of blockchain. Regulatory systems will have to be repositioned to cater for the complexities of this technology. Lawyers, regulators and the courts must not be left behind. Blockchain is a…

By Elsie Oyoo Last year, the Unga Group Chief Executive Officer enjoyed a 54 per cent pay rise despite the company suffering a Sh32 million loss. Also, in 2014, remuneration rose by 33 per cent for Kenya Airways directors despite reporting losses in the billions. These quoted companies are not isolated cases, and they have caught the attention of regulators. In response to the harm done to the public through bad governance and in line with global emerging practice, the Attorney General has taken a tough stance on directors’ remuneration by making into law the Companies General (Amendment) Regulations No.…