Author: NLM Correspondent

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…

By Shadrack Muyesu Corruption “…But you also are not able to keep those friends who put you there because you cannot satisfy them in the way they expected. You cannot take strong measures against them, feeling bound to them…” I lose count of the number of times Deputy President William Ruto’s name has featured in corruption scandals. In the eyes of many, the President may seem dearer but even for him, his presidency and entire fortune is seemingly founded on a historical fraud. What sense does it make, therefore, to expect that their presidency will spearhead a war on corruption,…

By Ian J. Ondari “We live in a globalising world. That means that all of us, consciously or not, depend on each other. Whatever we do or refrain from doing affects the lives of people who live in places we’ll never visit” – Zygmunt Bauman From the ashes of the Second World War was increased impetus for accord, to re-form the global order in a manner that would prevent return to the financial instability and trade bloc rivalry that had led to the outbreak of war. The then economic powerhouses, and de-facto superpowers (Allied Nations) led by USA and Britain,…

Prof. John Harbeson The recent decision by Cabinet Secretary for Devolution  to implement the 2013 Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) Act, in its original form, is, on its face, one of landmark importance in implementing the 2010 Constitution. Full consideration of its detailed provisions is well beyond the scope of any short essay. But the complexity of the legislation should not deter focused consideration of the principles and guidelines that the Act articulates, and those it leaves out or expresses only in passing. I suggest that the Act advances many indisputably lofty, essential objectives and purposes of civil society as well…