Author: NLM Correspondent

By Tioko Ekiru Emmanuel In February 1901, Oliver Wendell Holmes was asked to make some remarks on “John Marshall Day,” the 100th anniversary of the day on which Marshall took his seat as chief justice of the United States. Sixty-five years after his death, Marshall, had become a legend, and the legal journals and reports were filled with lush praise of his accomplishments. Holmes’ comment was more reserved. At one point he said, “I should feel… a doubt whether, after Hamilton and the constitution itself, Marshall’s work proved more than a strong intellect, a good style, personal ascendancy in his…

Peter Wanyonyi There was a time when everything happening in the East African Community revolved around Kenya. This was when Kenya was the leading economic power in the region, Tanzania was mired in the leftover decline of its socialist past, and Uganda was tied up in war after civil war. The less said about Rwanda and Burundi over that period the better. Kenya looked good because we didn’t have the all-out wars of Uganda and Rwanda-Burundi, and because our industrial base stood out in stark contrast to the centrally-planned poverty then prevalent in Tanzania. The legacy of this still obtains…

By Joel Okwemba The entrenched relations that the United States has built in Africa since the independence of most African States has grown deeper over time – until the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It comes out clearly from a research (2017) that was done across the world by Pew Research Centre headlined “U.S. Image suffers as publics around the world question Trump’s leadership”. The quantitative result of the research showed that a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing on global affairs in contrast to 64% as median for Obama’s confidence level to…

By Shadrack Muyesu In an article appearing in the Business Daily on 20th December 2017, Let’s optimise Big Data for revenue collection, Dr Bitange Ndemo identified the emergence of sharing economy as posing the greatest challenge to revenue collection. It was his contention, and correctly so, that open source software, though widely used, does not have a designate home where value created can be taxed or recognised by national accounting. His advice was for government to optimise Big Data for revenue collection. In a subsequent article appearing on Dec 29, he further urged monopolies to share the resource to enable…

By Yasin Arkan The Pretty “…we have owned this land since my father and grandfather…” – Maria Dodd of Kifuko Farm The sayer of these words could go no deeper, for there was no deeper. Neither could she show any legal mode of acquisition by her grandfather, for there was none. Actus Reus:  Imperialist expropriation. Primitive Accumulation. She enjoyed the utility of land acquired through expropriation by imperialist means. She did not/does not/cannot/will not own the land. Ownership requires a level of legitimacy history will never allow her, and legality can never give her. Britain’s Imperial Capitalist order dominates the…

By Alfred Mosoti Since antiquity, human beings have had the collective inherent weakness of denying facts, especially those go against their innate wishes. As a result, many people tend to be apprehensive to telling truth-unfavourable realities. The few who do it are often vilified; happily, truth does come out eventually. This fact can be perfectly depicted by paraphrasing George Orwell’s assertion that during moments of global falsehood, proclaiming the truth is a heroic move. When the astronomer Galileo Galilei, submitted his thesis that the earth is spherical and not flat as was universally “established”, he was labelled a madman –…

A major factor hindering infrastructure implementation and delivery is the absence of good governance, according to 130 delegates from 27 countries who came together for the first Regional Roundtable on Infrastructure Governance in Cape Town in November 2017. There’s no denying infrastructure is crucial to Africa’s growth prospects. Nor can one ignore the ever-growing need for infrastructure on the continent—in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 35% of the population has access to electricity, and 23% still lack access to safe water and sanitation. Despite an estimated shortfall of nearly $100 billion (Sh10.2 trillion) in infrastructure investment in Africa, lack of financing is not the…

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…

By NLM Writer After one of his infamous tussles – involving Tatu City – with the publisher of this magazine, former Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro once remarked to this writer – at a press conference at the DCI headquarters where half of his speech and question time was done in his native tongue – “nyinyi hamnijui”. That was along the very cold – literally too – and therefore intimidating corridors at the second floor of Mazingira House, just outside the press room. Because of the prevailing hostility towards a bold media and the Nairobi Law Monthly in particular,…

By Barack Muluka According to the Catholic faith, when he speaks ex cathedra, the Pope can never be wrong. The Pontiff speaks in this fashion when he discharges his office as a pastor and doctor of all Christians. Now, this dogma is not open to question. For, it derives from Jesus Christ’s promise to Simon Peter, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 16: 18 – 19, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter. And…