Author: NLM Correspondent

Lanji Ouko Next time a man or woman expresses how much they loathe “feminists”, whether the word or the movement, be sure to implore them for the reason! Ask them to define a feminist. Not a branch of feminism, but feminism in general. Parties with an issue with feminism can barely define the term, and neither can they identify its various branches! But they strongly believe the movement is out to bring to his knees every man on earth, eradicate them even. But, is feminism synonymous to the extermination of men? Feminism is an ideological, political, social movement whose main…

Nadrat Mazrui For millennia, the world had been engrossed with the concept of patriarchy and the subjugation of women by men. Male chauvinism, also called patriarchy, is a social system in which males hold primary power, and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. In the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures, according to supposed patriarchal beliefs, hold authority over women and children. Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic organisation of a range of different cultures. Generally, it is a reference to social systems in which…

Leonard Wanyama Graham Hancock accused donor organisations, particularly those linked to official aid, and their beneficiaries, of scavenging on the plight of the poor in his book the Lords of Poverty (1989). Within a context of large sums of donor money that have continued to grow since he published his book, the media, experts, consultants and free loaders of one kind or the other are said to have bought into fads around “new techniques”, “new directions” and “policy rethinks” that have done little to assuage the plight of the needy. This has obviously been detrimental to the motivated and erstwhile…

Kelvin Njuguna Mugwe Jean-Baptise Alphonse Karr opined in one of his epigrams that “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”, which when translated means “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. This witticism has gained undesirable significance in Kenya. The salient features introduced in the Kenyan Constitution 2010 cannot be overemphasised. It is trite knowledge that the promulgation of the Constitution was meant to usher Kenya into an era of change. However, it is scandalous to note that this has proved hopelessly elusive. Far-reaching changes formed the cornerstone of the new constitutional dispensation. Unfortunately, the status…

It’s the biggest tech case of the year, and maybe the decade. Taking place in a California federal court, the case pits Apple against the US government over control of the iPhone, with terrorism and privacy as the backdrop. The outcome will ripple across the entire technology sector and influence governments around the world. Does the FBI, which wants to force Apple  AAPL -0.31%  to override the iPhone’s encryption features, have a legal right to do so? The government is frustrated with new iPhone security features that make it near impossible for the FBI or Apple or anyone else (except…

Jared Juma President Uhuru Kenyatta’s dismissal of the gay rights debate as a non-issue in Kenya must have earned him a lot of admiration from home and a section of the extremely conservative African states. Add that to the fact that his sentiments came flat across the face of his visiting American counterpart, President Barack Obama, and it gets easier to see how much political mileage he scored. But there are obvious contradictions or weakness inherent and apparent in the arguments in the rebuttal that needs to be pointed out now that the dust seems to have settled on the…

Ali Abdi “Fundamental rights and freedoms and the rule of law are vital checks and balances in any civilised society but meaningless without the access to justice” – Shami Chakrabarty, former Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University It is trite that the pervasiveness of corruption in the Judiciary and the legal profession, whether one-off or endemic, is a major impediment to the rule of law as it bestows the fate of the citizens to men and not the law. Generally, under a system of good governance, the courts are expected to be impartial and fair institutions. In this regard, the judicial…

Using the inflexible category of tribe to allocate positions of power to elites is dangerous and can easily lead to those elites disadvantaged by numerical inferiority withdrawing from the democratic process and resorting to non-democratic means to contest for power. Okwaro Oscar Plato As expected, the outcome of the 2013 General Election was determined to a large extent by the tribal factor. Candidates who did not pitch their campaigns on tribal support miserably lost out to those who had the backing of their tribes. Although people may say that everywhere people vote for one of their own and cite examples…

By Newton Arori Perturbed that the government had declared a public holiday tied to Pope Francis’s visit, the chair of atheists in Kenya Harrison Mumia, in November 2015, moved to court seeking to have the holiday annulled. He contended that the holiday was unconstitutional, citing provisions in the supreme law to the effect that Kenya is a secular state, and as such, religious events should be kept out of the public sphere.  The matter was never decided by the court due to some technicalities. It nonetheless evokes the old and controversial question of separation of religion and the state. This…

I recently had what I want to believe was an interesting conversation with somebody, an important constituent from one of the counties – actually, a teacher. I describe the teacher as important because of their influence; either to persuade and/or dissuade others. Teachers are opinion leaders. My teacher-friend told me how she is impressed with her area Member of Parliament. According to her, unlike the Woman Representative, the MP has worked so hard to serve wananchi through various “development” projects. By virtue of her profession, it did not escape her attention that the MP gives cash rewards of up to…