Author: NLM Correspondent

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…

Antony Mutunga The carcass of one of the oldest and rarest African bush elephants in Kenya was found near the border of Tsavo national park. The 50-year-old elephant, which was known as Satao 2, was killed by poachers who were after its rare giant tusks that would fetch quite a fortune in the ivory market. Satao 2 who was named after Satao, another giant tusker that was also killed in 2014, seems to have been feeding at the border when tragedy struck. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers and Tsavo Trust officers found the body in January during an aerial…

Antony Mutunga The carcass of one of the oldest and rarest African bush elephants in Kenya was found near the border of Tsavo national park. The 50-year-old elephant, which was known as Satao 2, was killed by poachers who were after its rare giant tusks that would fetch quite a fortune in the ivory market. Satao 2 who was named after Satao, another giant tusker that was also killed in 2014, seems to have been feeding at the border when tragedy struck. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers and Tsavo Trust officers found the body in January during an aerial…

BY VICTOR ADAR It is four years since Konstantinos Kioleoglou, the man who has become synonymous with agro forestry plantation sector, came to set up Africa Plantation Capital’s operation in Kenya. Popular as Kosta, the expert valuer is here to establish a brand name while creating a strong network and stemming out challenges currently faced by the global timber and biomass industries. Mr Kioleoglou is behind the driving seat of Africa plantation capital, a division of the APC group that was initially incorporated in 2002 as private entity. APC group which is the mother company, though, has been operating successfully…

Shadrack Muyesu The signs are there for those who seek them to find. After August 8, Uhuru Kenyatta will still be President. If history is of any instruction, Raila Amollo Odinga will take to the streets, his followers in tow, but they will be no match to mean looking GSU officers with their armoured personal carriers, littering the streets of Nairobi like ants on an anthill. Like previous times, opposition politicians will be unrelenting in their clamour for reform; but with government adamant and their eyes gradually opening to a future without their patron, one by one, they will fall…

The election of Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo offers the country’s international partners a new opportunity to step up efforts in advancing peace and stability in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa. Yet the hopes of a stable future for war-torn Somalia may be short-lived if the fraught regional dynamic, in particular the mistrust felt by regional powers, are not effectively unaddressed. Farmajo’s near-landslide election victory on 8 February is without parallel. Although the eruptions of joy across the Somali-speaking Horn and the shared jubilation of citizens and soldiers in Mogadishu is rightly giving way to more sober assessments, the view…