Author: NLM Correspondent

By Leonard Wanyama As the candidature of Ambassador Amina Mohammed gathers up steam and looks like an extremely good bet to back, segments of the Kenyan populace are still conflicted as to whether she is indeed up to the task for the post as the head of the African Union (AU) Commission. This follows a recent interview on Al-Jazeera Upfront hosted by Mehdi Hasan, in which the CS appeared unprepared and dismissive on questions of human rights that were posed to her. Despite this, the administration still holds her in high regard and therefore views her performance on the show…

Dr Charles  Khamala When faced with two or more competing regimes claiming to be the government, states usually offer to support one group by treating it as the legitimate representative of the local people. Kenya’s criteria for recognising President Salva Kiir’s administration include not only the positions by regional or international organisations, but also effectiveness, our national interests as well as respect for South Sudanese constitutional procedures. Since 2013, Kenya had contributed to the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan 16,000 peacekeeping troops. Suddenly withdrawing the KDF generates debate about whether any rules regulate the international use…

By Kenyatta Otieno In the October issue, Alfred Mosoti wrote of how Kenyan politicians like to whip up anti-Kikuyu sentiments then go round and work with them as a selfish move for political survival. Mosoti had his facts right; he only failed to paint the whole picture. They say politics is a game of numbers, I will add that politics is a game of money. Numbers will always follow the money, and the Kikuyu have both the numbers and money. The combination of money and numbers explains why Luhyas, who I believe by now must have more than Kikuyus in…

By Antony Mutunga “That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended – civilisations are built up – excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and the cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin” – Clive Staples Lewis Living in a world that has, from time to time, fallen into ruination and bounced back after experiencing the likes of the World Wars, the Shoah (Holocaust), the Great Depression, the Global Financial Crisis and many others, one would tend to think that the world…

By Nadrat Mazrui After reading Rasna Warah’s UNsilenced on corruption in the UN – it was reviewed by Dr Tom Odhiambo in the November edition – I couldn’t help wondering: if the most eminent organisation in the world can be that compromised and corrupt, where exactly we are as Kenyans? Do we have anywhere to turn? Put differently, we always are complaining about the inherent corruption in our politicians but have we ever asked ourselves, why we are corrupt? Before you answer that, what really is corruption? When someone steals two cents that’s a robbery; when the thief has a…

By Sunday Memba “…Reckless outsourcing of investigations to NGOs with political agenda, a fixation with publicity over sound prosecutions and the overt use of the Court by European funders to maintain global influence puts the ICC’s long-term future at risk” – Toby Chadman Recent resolutions by some African States to withdraw from the International Criminal Court are a signal to the international community of states to wake up and smell the coffee. Now, it is a case of locking the stable door after the horse has already bolted. This article sets out to discuss whether the court can still sustain…

By Shadrack Muyesu Where constitutions allow, presidential pardons have always been a subject of controversy. Part of this has been blamed on the unfettered discretion regimes afford their presidents in exercising this power, and the thinking that the power of pardon significantly encroaches into the domain of the Judiciary. To highlight the extent of this discretion, the United States president has unlimited power to pardon any federal offence, which power can be exercised at any time and is not subject to judicial review or legislative control. This creates an unpredictable regime where one president can actively and consistently apply pardon…

By Kenyatta Otieno The alleged loss of Sh5 billion from the Ministry of Health was not news to me. After all, President Uhuru Kenyatta recently threw up his hands in surrender to graft cartels. The irony is that he did this right in State House, the seat of the most powerful office in Kenya. He blamed everybody else for not doing his or her job, hence his inability to arrest the vice. Two things have become malignant in the Kenyan social fabric – tribalism and corruption. The two symbiotically feed on each other; it is why a look at the…

By Prof. John Harbeson As I witness and begin to live through the political earthquake in the United States that started last month, which I find appalling and perhaps ominous, my thoughts to turn what it might mean for other regions of the world, and for Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. I begin to realise that the world into which former colonies have been introduced since their independence, and whose established norms they have been expected to embrace, may be on the cusp of a fundamental transformation. After a half century in which industrialised democracies have encouraged, aided, cajoled…

Education CS Fred Matiang’i has been consistent with his “Magufuli moments” and Kenyans are absolutely loving it. He does not have the rash abrasiveness of Joseph Nkaissery and Nelson Marwa, or the disturbing intrusiveness of Ezekiel Mutua and Joseph Kaimenyi; his is the demeanour of a loving but strict father. Dedication has seen him not only win over his fiercest critics in the teachers unions but also present a genuine hope that, for the first time in as long as anyone can remember, we are having credible national exams. Reclaiming moral uprightness in the education sector is a good starting…