Author: NLM Correspondent

BY DAVID ONJILI The national women soccer team Harambee Starlets have defied the odds and as they prepare for their maiden appearance at the continental soccer showpiece in Cameroon this November, the entire nation in typical Kenyan fashion has recognized and  are now happy to be associated with them. Success, indeed, has many fathers and failure none. Starlets have defied many perenial odds including lack of training facilities to qualify for the continental challenge. As such, they have earned their right to special mention. With current Football Kenya Federation under the youthful Nick Mwendwa, management has improved. The girls are…

By Kelvin Njuguna September of 2016 was the month when political parties made significant alignments and realignments in recent times. From the grand merger of affiliate parties of the Jubilee Coalition to form the Jubilee Party (JP) to the ten-year anniversary of the Orange Democratic Party (ODM); the tone for the August 2017 elections could not been better set. What the parties haven’t been able to articulate is whether these parties have faithfully fulfilled the requisite requirements of a political party as enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, and the Political Parties Act. Political parties in Kenya scandalously exist…

By David Matende There are early signs that the campaigns for next year’s poll will be a classical case of the theatre of the absurd – with the accompanying conflict, cliffhangers, hyperbole and irony. And media seem more than ready to amplify this tragic-comedy. In such a pathetic political theatre, rumour is often treated as fact and opinion passed around as news. They rolled it in mid September. If you recall, on Friday, September 16, newspapers and TVs had predicted that there was going to be a clash pitting Cord and Jubilee supporters at a Nairobi estate. The two main…

DR TOM ODHIAMBO The United Nations Organisation means different things to different people. But in the eyes of many, particularly victims of war and suffering, it means the alternative to failed governments, collapsed institutions and disintegrated humanity. The UN, as it is generally known, is the refuge for many deprived of a normal life, threatened by war, afflicted by natural disasters, diseased, those looking for someone to make them feel safe or somewhere to call ‘home’ temporarily. Records show that the UN has secured, comforted and protected many in the world since its formation. It has been at the forefront…

BY WANGUI WACHIRA Hero Honda Motors Limited (as it was known until 2011) was a joint venture between Honda Motor Company of Japan and the Hero group of India orchestrated in 1984. Honda, as independent entity, could not successfully invest in India since Indian policy dictated that it merges with an existing Indian company in order to access the Indian market. The merger created the world’s single largest two wheeler company and one of the most successful joint ventures worldwide. While India’s franchising policy requires that foreign franchises enter the Indian market in partnership with an existing Indian company trading…

By Kenyatta Otieno There is a verse in the Bible that says that for a grain of wheat to bring up new life, it has to fall into the ground and die. That sometimes it takes the death of National Development Party for National Rainbow Coalition to take shape. This phrase has always come to mind whenever I encounter ventures that are struggling or simply not working out. The number of pick-up trucks and small vans being driven at dare devil speeds from Meru through Thika Road to Nairobi has reduced in the recent past. The green gold from the…

By Daniel Benson Kaaya “The law adopts a strict policy of requiring the demonstration of something unfair before it will open the Pandora’s Box of litigation where there has been an agreement of this nature (prenuptial)” – Mostyn J in BN vs. MA [2013] EHWC 4250 (Fam) Quintessentially, love should be the core of marriages. The idea of reproduction, consortium among other marital satisfactions, was considered sacrosanct and prestigious. These core principles of marriage have eroded to become property-centred. This change has rendered marriages feeble and susceptible to mild tremors. Therefore, a discussion of distribution of matrimonial property becomes imperative.…

By Nur el-Kathiri Republic vs. Senior Resident Magistrate Mombasa Ex Parte H l & Another [2016] eKLR The grounds for a Judicial Review application in the High Court have been well established in judicial precedents. Further, the scope of the jurisdiction of the Children’s Court has been, commendably, provided for in the Children Act. The question that arises is whether the High Court suitably applied these pieces of legislation appropriately in the case in review. Facts This was a Constitutional and Judicial Review Application whose ruling was issued on July 15, 2016 at the High Court of Kenya at Mombasa…

By Daniel Benson Kaaya Do judges always apply the law to the facts in question to arrive at a sound or judicious determination? What if the law in question conflicts with his/her dispositions? These, among other questions about how a judge’s prejudices affect the aftermath of a judgement or ruling is the idea that informs the dialectical variance between the theories of judging – formalism and realism. Customarily, a judge is either a realist or a formalist. Formalist judges apply the governing law to the facts of a case in a logical, mechanical, and deliberative way. For the formalists, the…

By Newton Arori Imprisonment for failure to pay a debt, otherwise known as civil jail, is not exactly popular. To many, the terms of civil jail are unfair, illogical, and even illegal. In 2010, Lady Justice Martha Koome famously declared civil jail unconstitutional, saying it goes against the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees basic freedoms of movement and of pursuing economic social and cultural development. Lady Justice Koome is hardly alone in her distaste of civil jail.  The Southern Centre for Human Rights, an American human rights association, describes civil jail as “criminalisation of poverty”.…