Author: NLM Correspondent

Otieno Kenyatta In the recently concluded African Union Summit in Ethiopia, outgoing chairman Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe gave a rousing speech. He seemed to be telling the world that he still has the strength to rule his country for some years to come, or in his own words, until God calls him home. Let me digress. In the African society, the man is the head of the home. All a man needed to do as he entered his home is to cough or shout at his dog and everyone fell into shape. His itinerary was well known and everyone prepared…

By Elsante Mnzava Other than clients and employees, documents are a law firm’s life-blood. There is seldom a working day that a lawyer doesn’t create, edit, share, manage or store a document of some sort. In fact, many law firms have attempted to use some sort of “system” to manage documents, henceforth broadly referred to as “Document Management Systems” (DMS). Yet, despite the prevalent knowledge of DMS systems amongst Kenya law-firms, most have stuck to what we call “legacy systems” which generally comprise servers at a law firm’s facility onto which documents are stored. Examples of these are iManage, Worldox…

2016 is the 25th anniversary of Kenya’s democratic era as it is, more or less, for most of sub-Saharan Africa, an appropriate time for an overview of democratic progress made and not, in each country and the region as a whole. The basic story is that sub-Saharan Africa overall is more democratic in 2016 than it was in 1991 but, as is now widely recognised, that progress has appeared to reach a plateau for most of the continent around 2005.  Since then, progress has even receded in some respects and to differing degrees for some countries of the region. The…

Sunday Memba “Remember this: a story that must be told never forgives silence. Speech is the mouth’s debt to a story,’’ Femi Adaro is told by his grandmother in Okey Ndibe’s, Arrows of Rain. This appeal for sanity to prevail in social media platforms must not fall to deaf ears. For a while now, even a blind man could see that a regulation to curb the negative effects of social media was coming. Social media is the current El Dorado of information, and it is vital to distinguish what type is palatable. People who shout “fire” in a crowded building…

Wilfred Mutubwa In a re-enactment of the epic Greek mythology, the Trojan War, celebrated Hollywood actor Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, the nemesis of the Trojan prince, Hector.  In the movie Troy, Achilles, seething with a mixture of both anger and grief following the brutal killing of his cousin by Hector in the mistaken belief that he had slayed Achilles, rides his chariot to the gates of Troy and calls out Hector to a one-on-one duel. Before the fight begins, Achilles and Hector, belligerents with immense respect for each other, enter into a pact. Hector proposes to Achilles, which proposal…

Kenya’s next election happens in about 17 months and, many have begun to fret regarding the credibility of the yet-to-be-conducted poll, understandably so, considering our election history. The peaceful transition of power after elections last year in Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Burkina Faso gave Africans all over the continent hope that democracy still exists. On the other hand, Burundi and Ethiopia were at hand to remind us that “democracy” is relative – Pierre Nkurunziza’s forced a third term and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn retained power with almost 100 per cent of the vote. And, just as the world predicted,…

“A written Constitution is the legislation or compact which establishes the State itself…it is a document of immense dimensions, portraying, as it does, the vision of the peoples’ future. The makers of a Constitution do not intend that it is amended as often as other legislation; indeed, it is not unusual for provisions of the Constitution to be made amendable only by special procedures, imposing more difficult forms and heavier majorities of the members of the legislature’ – Amissah P in “Attorney-General v Dow (1992) B.L.R 199 at 129” If politicians had their way with the Constitution, we would barely…

Tijan Jens Ugandan strongman Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been “elected” for a new term in office after beating his fierce, long time rival, Dr Kizza Besigye, the Opposition candidate who ran on the ticket of the Forum for Democratic Change. The country’s electoral body declared the veteran leader the winner of the country’s bungled presidential election with 60 percent of the vote to the 35 per cent polled by Besigye. And in the aftermath of the “victory”, the Ugandan strongman chose to celebrate his new mandate with his beloved cows. Yes! His beloved cows! In a picture released by his…

Dr Charles A. Khamala Despite 200 years of European capitalism, serious violent crime declined. That was attributable to three factors. First, because real threat of state criminal punishments deterred both repeat and potential deviants. Second, wealth redistribution by welfare states cushioned the “discontented majority”. Third, informal reciprocity maintained social controls. Similar relatively lower violent crime rates characterised post-independent countries than today. However, post-Cold War World Bank and IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes heralded globalisation. Donor conditionalities forced developing countries’ governments to downsize, and embrace economic liberalisation and privatisation. In 2002, WHO reported that only 10 percent of all homicide-related deaths occurred…

Jane Wachira Human rights are as old as human civilisation; however their use and relevance has been well-defined during the recent years. They were first defined by the Scottish philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) as “absolute moral claims or entitlements to life liberty and property”. The best known expression of human rights is in the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, which proclaims that “all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights which, when they enter a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their prosperity.” Philosophers, theologians, social scientists and…