Author: NLM Correspondent

Newton Arori “…an election once held, is not to be treated in a light-hearted manner, and defeated candidates or disgruntled electors should not get away with it by filing election petitions on unsubstantial grounds and irresponsible evidence, thereby introducing serious elements of uncertainty on the verdict already tendered by the electorate. An election is a politically sacred public act, not of one person or of one official, but of the collective will of the whole constituency. Courts naturally must respect this public expression secretly written and show extreme reluctance to set aside or declare void an election which has already…

Tijan Jens Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took monumental steps towards clinching the Democratic and Republican party tickets respectively, to battle it out for the most powerful seat in the globe in the November 8 presidential elections. Trump won in key states in the March 15 primaries such as Illinois, the home state of US President Barrack Obama, North Carolina and Florida – where he also floored home state Senator Marco Rubio, who immediately bolted out of the race. But for Trump, the victories gave him more grease to continue rolling the wheel ahead of the November polls. “This was…

Kenyatta Otieno Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently won presidential elections in Uganda against former allies Dr Kiza Besigye and Amama Mbabazi. The social media was busy with both Ugandans and Kenyans doing their best to put their points across. Kenyans were laughing at Ugandans while Ugandans tried to make head or tail out of a choreographed election. Very few people expected Museveni to lose, but that did not take away the action. One of the attractions was the sexual imagery poetic prose by Makerere University Lecturer Dr Stella Nyanzi in support of Besigye. To borrow her line of thought, the unromantic…

Antony Mutunga The world has its eyes and ears on US, whose Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is battling it out with one of the biggest technology companies, Apple, where the formers wants the latter compelled to write special software that would override some security features on apple products. Now what makes the world watch this particular case in suspense is because it exposes the problems brought about by the clash between security and privacy. In this particular case, the FBI wants Apple to unlock and open the iPhone of one of the people involved in the terror attack that…

Nigeria has indicted more than 300 local and foreign companies and individuals, including military officers, over an arms scandal. They are accused of defrauding the country of $241m (Sh24 billion) in fake contracts, a government statement says. President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a probe last year after funds meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram militants were allegedly diverted. More than $35m (Sh3.4 billion) has been recovered in the investigation so far. The contracts were awarded by the office of the national security adviser from 2011 until 2015, the statement from the office of the president says. It lists all…

Lanji Ouko Kenyan institutions continuously contribute to the rise and fall of some of the most elite professions. It may be the government in general, private sector or even citizens but one fact remains: a number of professions are no longer viewed as prestigious as they once were thanks to bureaucracy, rigidity and institutional corruption! These three factors illegitimately weaken various institutions and professions, and the excuse of “too swamped” is irrelevant in most cases, if not in all! Growing up, teaching, medicine, aviation and law were highly respected and were, without question, the most prestigious career paths. Today, in…

For the past several years many observers have pointed out that democratisation in sub-Saharan Africa has arrived at a plateau with actual retreats in some places. Most of the major democracy monitoring systems have portrayed this new reality in stark quantitative terms. At the same time, there has been much less sustained discussion about what to do about this problem, either to reverse democratic back-sliding or, how to restart democratisation momentum, even how much sustained interest there is in finding ways to address these challenges. Having had a foot in both worlds, I find this lack of energy and will…

Water is one of the most important, perhaps the most important, resources we obtain from forests. It is vital for all living things; it is life. Forests determine the quantity, rate and quality of water that flows into streams and therefore into rivers. It then follows that careful management of forests is vital to ensure our present and future water needs can be met. It is for this reason that government’s everywhere create ministries or departments that they mandate with protecting and conserving forests and water resources. Kenya’s present forest cover is estimated at around seven per cent, below the…

Besieged Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro has now shifted blame to the Director of Public Prosecutions for the delay in conclusion of investigations into the protracted Tatu City court case. Muhoro, who addressed a press conference at the CID headquarters this morning, insinuated that DPP Keriako Tobiko had been slow or unwilling, for six months now, to provide legal advice on various matters as requested by the DCI. “These matters (on Tatu City) were investigated and the files forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecution in September 2015 seeking fir legal advice. Until last week, when the files were…

George Kegoro Since 2011, the government has been contemplating the modalities for issuing the fourth generation (4G) spectrum licence for mobile telephony and data, so called long term evolution (LTE), one that would be an improvement on the current third generation (3G) licensing regime. Unlike the 3G regime, which was issued to individual service providers, the government has been considering issuing the 4G spectrum to a consortium of service providers under a private-public-partnership (PPP) arrangement. The argument is that this will save cost to the public, as has been done in other countries. In addition, the cost of construction would…