Author: NLM Correspondent

By Shadrack Muyesu Acceptability and legitimacy or functionality and adaptability? Opinion remains divided as to what ideals mirror the perfect system of government. If it is the former, then this article must agree that liberal democracy is indeed the best system of government and, therefore, like Fukuyama (1992), the true end of history. But if the latter be an equally important goal, liberal democracy must be deemed an incomplete process. The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, effectively transformed Kenya into a liberal democracy (I have always insisted that this is just on paper). In its Preamble and the principles of good…

By Leonard Wanyama Are you shocked whenever Kenyans openly believe we might need a benevolent dictatorship for the sake of prosperity? Despite the humorous desire for a holiday, did the cheeky “Happy Moi Day” greetings strike your sensibilities as odd in the broader sense of the current democratic dispensation? Do you think it’s sensible for people to believe that criminals deserve to be summarily executed by law enforcement agents? These questions point to the fact that a significant segment of Kenyan society and officialdom essentially support punitive force as a means of governance or security management. This was clearly captured…

It was meant to have been a time for celebration. When on October 5th the Ethiopian government unveiled the country’s new $3.4 billion railway line connecting the capital, Addis Ababa, to Djibouti, on the Red Sea, it was intended to be a shiny advertisement for the government’s ambitious strategy for development and infrastructure: state-led, Chinese-backed, with a large dollop of public cash. But instead foreign dignitaries found themselves in a country on edge. Just three days earlier, a stampede at a religious festival in Bishoftu, a town south of the capital, had resulted in at least 52 deaths. Mass protests…

Since the founding of the nation of South Sudan five years ago, its citizens have gone from a brief moment of exhilaration and promise to the cruel reality of tribal violence, depredation and despair. Their leaders have failed them, and so has the UN Security Council, which is once again scrambling for a solution to end rampant killing and other abuses. One move the Council could make immediately is to impose an embargo on arms shipments, especially to the government forces that have been largely responsible for the bloodshed. The present crisis, in which at least 73 civilians have died,…

By Phoebe Nadupoi We have, to some extent, come to appreciate the ins and outs of corruption. Whenever anti-corruption agencies reveal names of individuals or companies behind certain corrupt dealings in Kenya, we demand to know the real names behind them. But the real culprits are always incognito. There is the unseen hand that orchestrates all the operations that deliver the desired outcome or if you like, the looting. As such, big time graft is not that straightforward. It is for this reason that conflict of interest and trading in influence (for some jurisdictions) is such a big deal. For…

By Juma Chrispinus Political science 101 will readily show that the quality of leadership is directly proportional to whether or not a country will develop quickly enough, or even at all, so that the question of what and who constitutes a good leader is critical. We have seen a meritorious public attempt in trying to find a leader fit for the purpose during the recent interviews for the position of the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya. After grappling with the effects of bad leadership and what we assumed, rightly perhaps, to be a bad law…

By Shadrack Muyesu Political parties have pushed and passed The Elections Law (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which bars party hopping. The celebration is that the new law will ideologise political parties whilst cementing party faithfulness. But how constitutional is the new law? How practical are its provisions? Will it really attain its purpose of coherence in political parties post nominations? Beyond what has been put out there, questions abound in regard to the true intentions of the new law. Indeed, that parliament only passed it after intense lobbying and arm-twisting by respective party hierarchies suggests that the Bill could have been…

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. His case is superficially appealing but begins to break down upon closer examination. The aim of this article is to correct the impression created by…

By Shadrack Muyesu Many a report has blamed extra judicial killings on the failure of the Judiciary to expeditiously adjudicate on cases of perceived threats to national security. Actually, loss of faith in public institutions, such as the courts, has been cited as the main cause of extra judicial killings. And the judiciary doesn’t deny it, if anything; it blames the supposed lethargy on the prosecution’s reluctance to properly discharge its evidential mandate, leaving courts with no option but to grant bail, pass light sentences to or altogether discharge the alleged threats. Trials in Kenya are, by nature, adversarial. In…

By TNLM Writer The discovery of the badly decomposing body of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and taxi driver in Oldonyo Sabuk River in Machakos County on July 1 ended any hopes their families, friends and colleagues had of ever seeing them again, alive. The three had been kidnapped, allegedly by police officers, tortured, murdered and their bodies dumped in the river. Their killers hoped that by dumping their bodies in the river, they would never be found – or, at least, that their heinous crime would not be traced back to them. As family, friends and colleagues mourned the…