Author: NLM Correspondent

By Leonard Wanyama Let me paint you a picture. Sometime in 2015, Kenyan Members of Parliament roundly rejected the nomination of Dr Monica Juma as the next Secretary to the Cabinet on malicious grounds. Dr Juma had, in her previous position as Principal Secretary in the Interior Department, strongly asserted herself, thereby blocking avenues for graft that were specifically perpetrated by Members of Parliament and other powerful forces. This was in the early days when the President Uhuru Kenyatta had first begun to express his frustration with corruption in his office, which resulted in the transfer of a number of…

By Shadrack Muyesu Revolutions take many forms. But generally they are the rapid transformations of the political and socio-economic climate of a state. The most accepted rationale behind revolutions can be drawn from the histories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Explaining the relationship between the societal base and its superstructure, they predicted the fall of the bourgeoisie state at the hands of an enlightened proletariat starved of wages due to advancement in the means of production. Revolutions of this nature would be spontaneous, requiring only the input and leadership of the starved workers keen on replacing the exploitative capitalist…

By Antony Mutunga Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has – Margaret Mead The year is 1848, the spring of Nations. A revolution like none before takes place in Central and Western Europe. Its cause? The people had grown tired of the endless degradation in the economy as well as the increasing cost of living that threatened their way of life. The revolution became a famous point in time as it revealed the power of a united people. In 1968, yet again a similar…

By Shadrack Muyesu Constitutions have been defined as political charters that define relationships between the governors and the governed. As such, constitutional amendments are nothing more than political concessions that evidence supervening political moods. The place of the Constitution, however, demands that they be sufficiently rigid so as to rid the right to amend of mala fides, as well as safeguard its certainty. The truth of this statement not only suggests an inherent imperfection of the Constitution, it also alludes to the existence of superior rules independent of or within the Constitution which constitutional amendments bona fide ought to adhere…

By Newton Arori In the September issue, readers were treated to an article with the incredulous headline “Unconstitutionality of the Constitution”. Now, the very notion of an unconstitutional constitution is slightly bizarre, more like saying that the Bible is unbiblical, but I will let it pass. In the article, the author, Shadrack Muyesu, puts forth arguments to support the idea that a constitution can be unconstitutional. It is those arguments that I take issue with. As we shall see, his case is superficially appealing but begins to break down upon closer examination. The aim of this article is to correct…

By Shadrack Muyesu Under the title “Why a constitution cannot be unconstitutional”, the October 2016 issue carried an antithesis of my “controversial” work, “Unconstitutionality of the Constitution”, that ran in the September 2016 edition. The author, Newton Arori, questioned the idea that there exist superior norms within and without the Constitution, against which constitutional amendments ought to be gauged for constitutionality. Citing an array of sources, Arori provided an alternative in the rationale that constitutional clauses were all complementary, with none being superior to the other. He also noted the absence of a constitutional forum within which the constitutionality of…

BY NEWTON ARORI In an attempt to defend his controversial submissions in Unconstitutionality of the constitution, Shadrack Muyesu has made at least three arguments in On unconstitutionality, opponents miss the point by a mile, which we shall address here. Natural law The first of his arguments, and indeed one that is a central pillar to Muyesu’s whole premise, is that in the setting of “natural law”, constitutions may be unconstitutional. That much is correct, except that the existence of natural law itself is questionable. The concept of natural law is problematic mainly because of its vagueness. What exactly is natural…

By Mumo Mutisya The law of Succession Act, Cap 160 (hereinafter “the Act”) provides for three categories of dependants: (a) the wife or wives, or former wife or wives, and the children of the deceased, whether or not maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death; (b) such of the deceased’s parents, step-parents, grand-parents, grandchildren, step-children, children whom the deceased had taken into his family as his own, brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters, as were being maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death; and (c) where the deceased was a woman, her husband if he…

By Daniel Benson Kaaya Insolvency of a company is a culmination of many factors. These factors may be internal or external, and include insufficient liquidity, value chain dependency, management conflicts, excessive expenditure, competition, impractical business ventures, inadequate resources to cover the costs of making the business venture, government policy, political instability, economic crisis and recurrent operating losses, among others. Charles A. O’Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman, in their book, Lead and Disrupt, argue that companies don’t generally fail because of competition; rather, it’s out-of-touch leadership that kills them. Leaders of such companies are rigid in one way or another—unable…

By Kelvin Njuguna Mugwe The promulgation of Kenyan Constitution 2010 ushered in novel provisions dealing with human rights. In their wisdom, the drafters of the Constitution correctly viewed the Bill of Rights as the fourth in priority given the unmatched ramifications if the same are disregarded. Chapter Four of the Constitution enumerates, in utmost precision and clarity, a plethora of fundamental rights and freedoms. The Bill of Rights, which has been referred in some quarters as the most progressive in the world, retains most of the rights existing in the independence constitution under Chapter Five. However, salient inclusions are also…