Author: NLM Correspondent

By Demas Kiprono On April 19, 2016, Justice Mumbi Ngugi declared Section 29 of the Kenya Information and Communication Act (KICA) unconstitutional in a petition filed by Geoffrey Andare, an online user, and Article 19, an NGO that champions freedom of expression. She declared that the provision creating the offense of “misuse of a licensed telecommunications system” was incompatible with the Constitution and therefore could not be left to stand. The decision was timely, a huge win for freedom of expression in Kenya and an encouraging step towards respect for human rights, especially online. Within the past year, and especially…

By Newton Arori  “Equal justice under the law is not merely a façade…it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists…it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status” – Lewis F Powell Jr, former United States Supreme Court Justice The National Assembly has recently enacted the Legal Aid Act. The Act sets out its objective as “to facilitate access to justice and social justice; to establish the National Legal Aid Service; to provide for legal aid,…

By Kenyatta Otieno The drums have been beating since the Ministry of Education announced plans to overhaul our 8-4-4 education system to a 2-6-3-3-3 one. As usual, opinions have been traded with those opposed to and supporting the move coming out publicly to defend their stands. To begin, let me say that Kenya’s is the biggest non-mineral economy in Africa. This is as a result of our highly skilled workforce which we have exported around the world as a result of our 8-4-4 education system. The current education system is not the problem. We should be grateful to our educationists…

By Shadrack Muyesu All the war propaganda, all the screaming, lies and lies and hatred invariably come from people who are not fighting – George Orwell Military men are “dumb” “stupid” “animals” to be used as pawns for foreign policy – Henry Kissinger 360 deaths later and a struggling economy crippled in no small part by numerous travel advisories issued against Kenya, an increasingly defiant nation maintains that she is not about to exit Somalia.  But should we really be in Somalia? Originally, the Somali invasion was informed by the desire to insulate the nation from the Somali conflict while…

By Ndung’u Wainaina The retiring Dr Willy Mutunga entered state office of the Chief Justice under unprecedented public scrutiny. He responded to critics and endeared himself to millions of Kenyans and international fraternity. He captured the imagination and aspirations of Kenyans on what a reformed Judiciary should be. Dr Mutunga convinced country of his passion, will and commitment to transform a condemned institution. His tenure in office has seen significant progress in judicial reforms and created a firm foundation for deepening reforms. However, it equally has left several critical unanswered questions. The Chief Justice is retiring when the institution of…

By Kenyatta Otieno Forget the tyranny of numbers for now. In Environmental Management, there is the principle of “tyranny of small decisions”. It states that a single decision against the environment may appear harmless and inconsequential in the larger scheme of things, but over time several such decisions compound and cause huge negative effects. The recent heavy rains exposed our vulnerability to effects of our small mistakes over time. As soon as the rains fell in late April, pictures began to circulate of cars submerged in flooded roads. Most people in social media had something negative to say about Governor…

On May 17, the Daily Nation and its sister publication the Business Daily dared Safaricom and printed twin stories highlighting findings of a KPMG audit which has revealed massive corruption deals at Safaricom. Safaricom promptly punished the NMG by withdrawing all media spend to all its outlets! It is the longest, and the only one of its kind, supervised gagging practice in Kenya.  Even the Presidency does not invite such fear in editorial rooms. But NMG has defied this prohibition and in hard-hitting pieces decided that “the Truth” will always eventually work in its favour by maintaining the credibility of…

All is not well with the Sh14.5 billion police security communication system that was single-sourced to Safaricom. Government officials have all dissociated themselves from the contract fearing the legacy issues that may follow. First, the barter trade that was originally touted as the payment method has been quickly abandoned by the National Treasury. Government financial regulations do not permit off balance sheet transactions. As originally crafted, Safaricom had proposed to finance the rollout of the system whose cost was to be repaid by offsetting against the 4-G frequency spectrum fees, which Safaricom would have been due to pay in future.…

By Jesse Kisenya The telecommunications industry in Kenya has been on a growth spurt and has expanded admirably in a short span. According to the latest regulatory data, Kenya’s mobile phone subscription now stands at 37 million, translating into a mobile penetration level of over 87 per cent. This growth is driven by the players’ need to continue growing market shares, thereby promoting products geared towards luring and retaining subscribers to their networks. Players are investing heavily in technology to promote and facilitate innovation. Each operator looks to capture shares from the other through aggressive promotions and new value-added propositions,…

Tens of thousands of people in western South Sudan have been forced to flee killings, gang-rape, torture and other abuses by government soldiers, leaving entire neighbourhoods empty, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last month. It said South Sudanese soldiers were “getting away with murder” and called for government to halt abuses and support creation of a war crimes court to investigate and prosecute. Attacks on Fertit civilians in and around the town of Wau in the Western Bahr el Ghazal region surged in December following a deployment of soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to the region, HRW…