Author: NLM Correspondent

Even in the posher restaurants in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the world’s newest country, the menus are printed on cheap paper. It is not worth having more expensive ones when they have to be updated every few weeks. Thanks to an inflation rate that touched more than 50% a month at one point last year (the conventional definition of hyperinflation, though price rises have since eased off a bit), even a modest meal costs a brick-sized bundle of currency. Over the past year, the value of the South Sudanese pound has collapsed. It used to take 30 to…

By Kenyatta Otieno Last month, I wrote how building the SGR when Kenyans and their livestock are dying due to lack of food, makes no sense. Even the clashes in our semi-arid regions are more about resources – which translates to sustenance – than politics. Politics comes in because we believe that political power is our only gateway to resources. In this regard, shoot-to-kill is not a quick fix solution; it is not even a solution in the first place. Let us consider Israel. The Jews who docked in Jaffa in Palestine from 1880s in the Aliyah immigrations from Europe…

By Fuad Abdirahman 10 years ago, the United Nations Security Council authorised the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in support of then Somalia’s Transitory Federal Institutions (TFIs). Initially, the mission was given a mandate of only six months, but a decade later because of several but necessary extensions, according to both Amisom and the Kenya Defence Forces. At the time of deploying the troops, their duty was to “to support a national reconciliation congress and submit a report within 60 days on a possible United Nations Peacekeeping Mission.” Part of the Amisom (African Mission in Somalia) role in Somalia was to…

By Martin Nyakundi o’Barimo The prosecutor occupies the most critical position in the criminal justice system in Kenya, both in the evidential and public interest tests. Much as the Judiciary may expand and increase the number of court officers, the judicial officers will still be waiting in the courts for the prosecutor to coordinate conveyance of suspects to court and to prove his case as required by the law – beyond reasonable doubt. However, the role of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions has been put under a strict public microscope owing to very unsatisfactory and gigantic record of number of…

By Leonard Wanyama Any political observer who believes that Peter Kenneth is a goody two shoes is immensely naïve. This is a very likely mistake analysts and the general Nairobi public might make in the examination of his gubernatorial ambitions within the county. For one, it is absolutely strange and astonishing how an individual who got only 1 per cent of the city’s votes – 15,662 to be precise – when he was gunning for the presidency in 2013 believes that he is the best bet for the position of governor. The man he is currently challenging, Dr Evans Kidero,…

ISAAC SWILA Is Wiper party leader Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka in a scheme to “hand” President Uhuru Kenyatta another five years in power? This is the question on the lips of many NASA supporters as daggers get drawn and parties ready themselves for the mother of all political battles in August this year. According to observers, Kalonzo’s bold move last month to submit his presidential nomination papers to his Wiper Democratic Movement party, has triggered uncertainty in the National Super Alliance (Nasa), with many fearing that his mind is all but made up on going it alone. What had been billed…

A cap on commercial lending rates by the government last year has hurt its own ability to raise funds in the local debt market as it struggles to keep yields below the maximum threshold. And the Central Bank has cancelled three auctions of Treasury bills and bonds this year, after investors pushed up yields towards or past the 14 per cent, where the commercial cap stands. “They are in a bit of a straitjacket and something will have to give,” said a senior fixed-income trader, referring to the cancelled auctions. The cap was introduced in September last year. It limits…

By Chrispine Aguko In the latest demonstration of impunity in Baringo, a two-week old baby was left orphaned when bandits attacked a police van and killed a woman. It’s not clear how police officers, the other travelers in the van, escaped. Security chiefs are economical with information, only insisting that the situation is being handled. A conversation with a police recruits in Baringo, however, reveals deep-lying problems. First is the perennial question of dismal wages. Officers at the frontline are entitled to a measly Sh500 allowance. Worse, as Troon*, a recruit explains, deductions are made on salaries for basic items…

The World Bank has announced a $57 billion financing package for sub-Saharan Africa over the next three years. The international financial institution said that the money would benefit Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, the DR Congo, South Sudan and Ethiopia. It will be made available from July this year to June 2020. According to WB President Dr Jim Yong, the funds will be directed towards the expansion of programmes in a number of sectors including agriculture, business climate, clean water and sanitation. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will give $8 billion (Sh800 billion) for private sector investment, International Bank for…

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, in her presidential campaign, pushed controversial anti-European Union and anti-immigrant stances, claiming globalisation and “Islamic fundamentalism” are threatening French values. In her self-described new approach, Le Pen has called for a policy of “non-interference, which doesn’t mean indifference,” providing development aid to Africa, and maintaining French military presence in countries like Cameroon and Chad. During a presidential debate on Mar 20, Le Pen stressed the importance of French economic and political security. She categorically pointed out that she wants “to put an end to immigration” and blamed the centrist…