Author: NLM Correspondent

The last twelve months have been a confusing time for African democracy. We have seen coups that didn’t look like coups and elections that didn’t look like elections. In this sense, it was a year of illusions. As in 2016, the broad trend is clear: with a number of notable exceptions, the gains made in the early 1990s are under threat from governments with little commitment to plural politics. It’s true that 2017 provided further evidence of the danger of democratic backsliding. But it also saw powerful presidents suffer embarrassing setbacks in a number of countries. So what lessons does 2017 have to…

By Kenyatta Otieno Chinua Achebe, in his book The Trouble with Nigeria, quotes an unknown political scientist from South East Nigeria who said Nigeria has an Igbo problem. There is no love lost between the Igbo of Anambra and Imo States, and the federal government of Nigeria. Since the 1970 collapse of Biafra’s attempt to secede, it appears Nigeria never solved the problems that led to the fall out. The Igbo have had a marriage of convenience with the other two dominant tribes – the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani and the government as a new push for secession is taking shape.…

Duplicate problems, different responses The United States and Venezuela traded harsh words after President Nicolas Maduro said that parties that boycotted last month’s mayoral elections would be banned from future elections. A ruling party bigwig said this reflected the government’s belief in multiparty democracy, a position that refreshes memory on the calls to make voting mandatory witnessed in the wake of low voter turnout that marred President Uhuru Kenyatta’s fresh presidential elections win. Something for Judiciary to learn from our neighbours down south While the Supreme Court has been lauded for its independence from the way it handled the recently…

Kenya’s Tana River Basin, a major source of hydroelectric power, food and fresh water, may see its annual rainfall increase as much as 43 percent by the end of the century because of climate change, scientists said last month. The river basin, stretching from the centre to the east of the country, is home to 8 million people. It supplies 70 per cent of Kenya’s hydro-power, and 80 percent of Nairobi’s drinking water, according to UN Environment. Scientists say the Tana River Basin, which has experienced drought over the past few years, is likely to get wetter this century, although…

By Prof. John Harbeson As devoted as I am to the proposition that democracy is an indispensable value well worth pursuing as an end in itself, at the same time I am also increasingly convinced of a less well-established proposition that to be sustainable democratic practices must prove to be essential to realising other equally important objectives.  In any country, but especially in still relatively new states, democracy must over time, in both fact and appearance, lead to stronger personal and collective security, state stability, and discernible social and economic progress at the level of individuals and families as well…

The Nairobi Law Monthly condemns in the strongest terms possible the sustained assault on human rights currently being witnessed around the world. Specifically, we condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar by government-allied forces, the discrimination of blacks in the United States and Israel, human trafficking and the sale of blacks as slaves in Libya, the incarcerations of journalists reporting on government excesses in Egypt, shooting of unarmed protestors and the disabled by Israeli troops in the Middle East and, worse, a Donald Trump-sanctioned campaign against Islam and all forms of peaceful co-existence. We would also like to…

By Kenyatta Otieno At the 2017 World Athletics Championship in London, sprint legend Usain Bolt bowed out on a low by winning a bronze in 100 metres and then bowing out injured in the 4X100 metres relay. Omar McLeod won the only gold medal for Jamaica in the 110 metres hurdles to take their tally to four medals, including three bronze medals. This was a low for a nation known for sweeping the sprints at international meetings. Jamaica holds a four-day High School athletics championship that is simply known as Champs. It is big. During the event, everyone identifies with…

By Alexander Opicho On Wednesday November 1, 2017, news trickled into social media forums that Okoth Okombo, professor of Linguistics at the University of Nairobi, had passed away. The gentle giant was at home not only in the area of Linguistics but also had a knack of extending linguistics to serve other disciplines. In other words, there are professors, and then there is Prof Okombo. About two decades ago, I was a fresh at the University of Nairobi. Most students were interested in building their image while my burning desire was to be an agent of change at the university…

By Alexander Opicho Published in September, this book is only a few months old. Allan Mayne, a Professor of urban studies at the University of Leicester, and also a visiting professor to dozens of other learning institutions in the Western World, is the author of Slums: The History of Global Injustice. It is a seminal work on sociology, economics, politics and literature about the urban poor as expressed through the examination of the phenomenon of slums as a mega injustice by the political and economically mighty on the wretched humble of the earth. Mayne puts it that slum dwellers are…

By David Onjili The world is asplash with materialism, which explains mantras like “pursuit of happiness”, a sugarcoated admission of materialism. Yet, in this rat race of life, all this is like chasing the wind. A student, for example, has the option to diligently attend class and, through hard work, sit an examination, or skip classes then copy answers or buy the exams to obtain a pass. In a queue, one can choose to follow order or jump the line and be first at the expense of those who came earlier. We live in an era that condones, even glorifies…