Author: NLM Correspondent

Ranier Fsadni, writing about Bloggers and their sources in the “Times of Malta” on January 21, raised an important issue, in the realm of media law, which needs to be addressed legislatively. He refers to the question of confidentiality of journalistic sources. Without being unnecessarily legalistic in this short contribution, the gist of all these past contributions is to the tenor that the press laws need updating, not only in relation to the protection of journalistic sources but in other aspects too, such as the need to repeal the provision in the law related to criminal libel and concomitantly increasing…

Achero Mufuayia Kenya’s judicial system consists of a hierarchy of courts whose decisions are binding on the litigants. The courts are a creation of the Constitution of Kenya as well as legislation that provides for their structures, powers and roles. The law also provides for the jurisdiction of the courts. However, there are quasi-judicial bodies within the public academic institutions with powers and jurisdiction to adjudicate on disputes arising between and among staff and students. All public academic institutions in Kenya are established by the University Act of 2012. In addition, institutions have regulations that regulate admission of students as…

Lanji Ouko Article 10 of the Constitution, under clause (3) stipulates that “All state organs and all public officers have the duty to address the needs of vulnerable groups within society, including women, older members of society, persons with disabilities, children, youth, members of minority or marginalised communities, and members of particular ethnic, and religious communities.” In attempts to gauge individual and institutional responses to gender-based violence, a number of studies have focused on the action of reporting by the victim, the services the victim receives, the role of the health staff and the institutions the victim reported to, and…

Ali Abdi “Little could be more corrosive of the public’s fragile trust in government if it were clear that public authorities could freely renege on their past undertakings or long-established practices” – Christopher Forsyth In the interpretation of laws, Courts have, in pursuit of new jurisprudence, evolved the principles of administrative law solely to control the exercise of power.  These principles are intended to provide safeguard to the citizens against abuse or misuse of power by the instrumentalities or agencies of the State. One of the latest and important of these principles is the ‘doctrine of legitimate expectation’, which is…

Peter Wanyonyi Is Safaricom a dominant player in the telecom market in Kenya? If so, what should be done about it; what can be done about it? Looking at the relevant laws and industry regulations, what must be done about it? Has Safaricom abused its position if it is a dominant player in the telecom market in Kenya? Where does that leave consumer choice for services such as money transfer and voice call services? And what do the laws governing competition in Kenya say about the matter, anyway? The last several years have seen various manifestations of these and related…

David Matende A visitor to Mwilonje, a small trading centre in Vihiga County, would assume that the people here love green as almost all shops are painted in that colour. A closer scrutiny, however, will reveal that the shops are actually branded in the colours of the “the better option”, Kenya’s dominant mobile phone provider and regional telecom behemoth, Safaricom. The scene in Mwilonje is replicated in other trading centres and towns across Kenya. This supremacy is not about to be challenged; if anything, it is expected to escalate, thanks to new laws that cleverly thwarted efforts to declare Safaricom…

Shadrack Muyesu Most recently, the standout event in the never ending circus that is Kenya’s politics has been the signing into law of the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act of 2015. The new law has stirred a sandstorm. On one hand, government’s political battalions have hailed the immaculateness of the new law; on the other, the major players in the telecoms sector are crying foul. Those who are for the law argue that the new laws open new, previously unfathomable frontiers with regard to the exercise of oversight and management over a previously chaotic regime. The sceptics, on the other…

Lanji Ouko Who would have imagined, a few years ago, how rapidly the cultivation and use of marijuana would rise across Africa? The US set the ball rolling when it spearheaded the legalisation of the herb in a number of states. Over a decade later, African states have gradually succumbed to the pressure and began to table the possibility of legalising it as well, not only for medicinal use but economic benefits as well. According to the 2009 report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) the “highest levels of cannabis production in the world take place on…

By Charles Khamala & Andrew Mellon In agrarian economies, the key property in question is land, the primary means of production. Some land ownership scholars on Kenya, such as Perpetua Karanja, Akinyi Nzioki, Parker Shipton and Mitzi Goheen, reject the notion of collective ownership in customary land tenure, except for lands with particular cultural functions. They point out instead the system of intersecting, multi-layered rights, which grants various rights or privileges in the land to myriad members of the family, clan, etc. Even assuming that their studies are statistically significant, what value is “ownership” without “access?” Thomas Sikor and Christian…

By Jane Wachira Syria, officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in western Asia whose capital city is Damascus. It borders Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the south west. Archaeologists believe the original civilisation in Syria is one of the most ancient on earth seeing as it is part of a fertile crescent, where some of the first people on earth practiced cattle breeding and agriculture. It is a country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, and home…