Author: NLM Correspondent

By Bephine Ogutu What comes to mind when you hear about the matatu business? Do you see opportunities, chaos or both? Well, irrespective of your perception of the industry, the fact of the matter is that this is not a business for the faint-hearted. The industry employs hundreds of thousands of Kenyans and it’s a source of either basic income or extra income for many. A lot of employed people have invested heavily in this sector that is always associated with corruption and indiscipline. This is the sector that has made the police force to maintain the top spot in…

By Salome Nthenya Nzuki After the Gender Bill failed to pass in May, it is crystal clear that women won’t be served leadership positions on a silver platter. The two-thirds gender rule is a constitutional provision (Article 27 (6), but only 178 legislators voted in favour of the bill; moreover, the number of legislators in Parliament that day did not constitute the required minimum to pass an amendment. There is a substantive scarcity of elected women leaders both in the National Assembly and the Senate. Out of the available 290 constituency seats, only 16 women got directly elected MPs. There…

By Jane Wachira “But that the unequal should be given to equals, and the unlike to those who are like, is contrary to nature, and nothing which is contrary to nature is good” – Aristotle Aristotle’s assertion is summarised thus: things that are alike should be treated alike, while things that are unalike should be treated unalike in proportion to their unlikeness. The notion of natural inequality was central to his conception of humanity. Aristotle further likened equality to justice – he considered the two ideas synonymous; to be just is to be equal and to be unjust is to…

By Fuad Abdirahman Those in the know believe that the perpetration of widespread marginalisation of Kenya’s north by successive regimes since independence was motivated by Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 on African Socialism and its Applications to the Development of Kenya. The Paper ostensibly was created to give life to a call by President Jomo Kenyatta, to realise “rapid economic development and social progress for all our citizens”. The Sessional Paper stated, “the development budget should be invested where it can result in the highest net output” – meaning areas that had great agricultural potential – putting to great disadvantage…

By Shadrack Muyesu As long as human want persists and the principles of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost remain true, corruption can only be mitigated, not eradicated. It’s time the debate on corruption moved away from enumerating its instances to concentrating more on finding out its causes. Only then can we find a real solution. While public intellectualism recommends a change of mind-set, public morality cannot be coerced. The required mind-set is the result of a gradual evolution, which comes about as the historical socio-economic factors influencing a people’s thinking periodically diminish. Similarly, tougher regulations are bound to fail as…

By Chrispine Aguko When, as a young girl, Queen Elizabeth II visited Kenya in 1952, she visited the Kaloleni Social Hall, where she was served tea in House Number L1. Founding President Jomo Kenyatta held countless meetings there, to plan for independence, and even after. Barack Obama Sr, Tom Mboya, Mwai Kibaki, Oginga Odinga, and most of those in the political class in the sixties and seventies were all frequent visitors of this iconic facility of yore; such was the fame and weight of the Kaloleni Social Hall. It was the happening place. Constructed by the colonial government, the Hall…

How could she say that?! The horror of the statement by the Minister on how a state agency and various human rights organizations, “…are making … up”, information hang in the air! Members of Kenya’s intelligentsia and ‘commentariat’ were dumbfounded by the performance of Ambassador Mohammed on international TV. She was there to respond to questions on whether Kenya is losing the war on Al-Shabaab. Kenyan audiences were shell-shocked. Ambassador Mohammed’s attempt to convince her host to abandon his gotcha journalistic style was fruitless. Audiences did not leave with the notion that despite the fact that Al-Shabaab is the primary…

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…