Author: NLM Correspondent

By Barack Muluka With the Jubilee and National Super Alliance (Nasa) manifestos for the August 8 elections out in the last week of June, it was expected that the presidential competition would start being issue-based. Unfortunately the level of debate between the two main contestants for Kenya’s most powerful and most prestigious office has remained depressingly low. The conversation remains hugely in the territory of invective and ad hominem verbal diatribe. To a great extent, you are reminded of the proverbial children in a marketplace shouting at one another, “We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance.…

By Kibe Mungai I was not yet born in December 1969 when Kenya held its second general election, but reading Odinge Odera’s wonderful biography My Journey with Jaramogi, it is not easy to shake off the feeling that the August General Election is 1969 Mark II. The fall-out between Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Odinga, coupled with the assassination of Tom Mboya in July 1969, as well as the proscription of Odinga KPU in October the same year were the explosive mix that defined the count-down to the 1969 election that, for better or worse, transformed the character of the Kenyan…

By Ndung’u Wainaina This article will not dwell on Raila Odinga’s history. That has been taken care of by several articles and biographies by different authors locally and internationally. This article is about Raila Odinga’s promise to the people of Kenya for a new Kenya as a five-year transitional president, with the vow to being a consequential transformational, not transactional, presidency. This author would like to disclose he proposed and pushed for this arrangement and that his conscience is comfortable with the prospect of a Raila presidency. The 1972 Democratic Party of United States of America campaign platform read: “We must…

By David Onjili I am a proud member of a political party, which I joined on my own volition as a young Machiavellian mind in the year 2006 and not out of hot air and razzle-dazzle politics. It was one of the greatest moments of my life, to be affiliated to a political party. It still is my joy to date. Kenyan politicians change their positions just like your ordinary wind vane, and this was confirmed when, to my utter dismay, one of the senior member of my party – who also happens to be the person that truly sold…

By Kenyatta Otieno Two phrases stuck in my memory during the 2008 post-election violence crisis: political elites and ruling elites. By the time Kofi Anan was taking a walk around central park to cool off from the negotiations, I had made my conclusions on the two groups the western government representatives were calling upon to find a solution to the crisis. The elected political elite can look like they are wielding the power but the real power is always with a small cabal of shadowy, rich and influential figures – the ruling elite. In the case of 2007 elections, it…

BY NLM WRITER It wasn’t the facts that raised eyebrows. The unreserved, lack of restraint, free-for-all character annihilation of businessman Jimi Wanjigi by Kenya’s leading news outlet, Nation Media Group, has left observers worried about media fidelity to ethics and journalistic standards during this electioneering period. According to multiple interviews, the Daily Nation of June 22, 2017 (The Jimi Wanjigi Connection: Nasa has opened its arms to Kenya’s most feared man) was, without doubt, a hatchet man’s job, the lowest form of journalism that exceptionally sought to convict and sentence a person without granting him the due “right of reply”.…

By Alexander Opicho It is Paul of Tarsus that first used the words “scum of the earth” when he was describing the powerless communities during the times of the early church. Paul’s language in describing the poor had been obviously influenced by the deep study of Aristotle and other supplies of Greek philosophy, Roman law and the study of Jewish legal-political organisation. These statements of Paul have had spiritual and philosophical as well as revolutionary effects on the latter generations across different cultures. For example, literary psychology tells us that Jagjit Singh’s title of his play Sweet Scum of Freedom…

By David Matende Kenya’n are often chided as the quintessential copycats. From the way they dress to what they eat and how they speak English, Kenyans are unabashed borrowers of the foreign. This month, media houses will host US-style presidential debates ahead of the August 8 General Election. Some say that the presidential debates are a sign of a maturing democracy, that they may help the voter decide who is best suited to be president. Well, that might sound good, but I think our presidential debates are a waste of time, energy and resources – unless they are meant to…

By Isaac Swila Simmering political tension is threatening to explode in the vote-rich basket of Central Kenya and complicate William Ruto’s quest to succeed his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, in the wake of chaotic Jubilee party primaries, as the 2022 succession race begins to take shape in earnest. Although Kenyatta is facing a stern challenge to his presidency from a revitalised and a united opposition coalition, Nasa, ahead of the August 8 elections, jitters, murmurs, and disquiet is building up in his traditional political base, which his deputy wants to inherit. However, Ruto’s desire is already running into headwinds over…

NLM Writer Jubilee and Nasa are both champing at the bit for the titanic battle that the Kajiado gubernatorial race has turned out to be, where the incumbent David Nkedianye and former Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku are the front-runners for their respective parties. Lenku triumphed in the Jubilee party nominations, beating Tarayia ole Kores, while Dr Nkedianye got a direct nomination, as he had no challenger for the ODM ticket. Where the governor easily beat URP’s Livondo in 2013, this year’s election promises to be a close affair that could swing both ways. In 2013, many averred that…