Author: NLM Correspondent

Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga is a soft-spoken man but the work he has undertaken at the Judiciary speaks volumes about his work ethic. Backing his achievements are outstanding academic and professional credentials. When he did his O-levels, he became the first student in Kitui District to score six points in the exam (an ‘A’ in all subjects), a feat that earned him a place at Strathmore College for his ‘A’ levels. He obtained his Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Nairobi in 1971 and his Masters from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974. He then…

The first verse of Kenya’s National Anthem asserts, “Justice be our shield and defender”. Justice, together with liberty and equality, summarise the spirit of political democratic systems. Justice is also a basic human value. The Supreme Court of Kenya, established under Article 163 of the Constitution, is the highest tribunal in the land for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or Kenyan laws. As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the Kenyan people access the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution.…

In one of his writings, “What Next in the Law” Lord Denning observes: “There remains the most touching question of all.  May not the judges themselves sometimes abuse or misuse their power.  It is their duty to administer and apply the law of the land.  If they should divert or depart from it and do so knowingly it is a misuse of power.  So we come up against Juvenal’s question, sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes (But who is to guard the guards themselves?)” The question posed by Lord Denning is the dilemma we are faced with in our judicial system today. It is…

Kenya’s war on Al-Shabaab, which the country took to southern Somalia through Operation Linda Nchi in 2011, turned, within a short time, into a grinding down of the country’s national security (structures), with well-coordinated retaliatory attacks within Kenya. When it appeared like the deadly assaults, whose death toll conservative figures put at just below five hundred, people began to question the relevance of the claimed victories by the Kenya Defence Forces over the terror group. None was more vocal than the Opposition and Civil Society groups in calling on government to reconsider the KDF’s continued stay in Somalia, to stem…

In 1989, a group of international donors, then popularly known as Paris Club, met in France. Because of increased looting of development grants advanced to the Kanu regime, the donors decided they would henceforth channel their aid to Kenya through NGOs. President Daniel Moi’s government, through Parliament, developed an NGO Act draft Bill that allowed the Government to tap into the donor funds. The draft Bill was hurriedly developed and was due to be presented to Parliament for its first reading when the local civil sector caught the wind of the impending draft law. Ezra Mbogori, then Executive Director of…

Even on the verge of succumbing to the growing weight of graft, plunder and anarchy at the top, the Jubilee Government is at war with the civil society. The genesis of this contention is the commencement of the Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Act 2013. The law creates a PBO Authority – a semi-autonomous body to regulate the civil sector. In a way, this authority liberates non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by loosening the current tight grip that the State has on the civil sector. For this reason, the State is against the commencement of the new law. Since a discrete coup was…

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga recently pointed out that the biggest enemies to Kenya’s war against graft, bad governance and tribalism were her “elites.” To the extent that these “elites” and our current crop of political leaders or opinion makers are synonyms, he couldn’t be more correct. It is the Chief Justice’s “elites” that either perpetrate the continued thriving of the negative choice factors discussed in the first instalment to this article appearing in last month’s issue or, worse, condemn the application of ancient jurisprudence in developing an entirely new yet thoroughly needed “African” jurisprudence. That democracy is currently the best…

A few years ago, I responded to an advert in the media for a political leadership mentorship programme that was sponsored by a country in the region of the world we like to refer to as “the West”. I cannot remember all the questions in the application form but there was one on democracy. My take was that the African culture does not support democracy which is the reason why it is taking ages for democracy to take root in the continent. My solution was to build democracy onto a communal (tribal) based governance system. I missed out on the…

There is a new sheriff in the United Republic of Tanzania and his name is Dr John Pombe Magufuli. The bespectacled 56- year old former Chemistry teacher defied the political undercurrents in the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), to rise to the highest office in the land, succeeding Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. Through his election, Magufulli, who has been nicknamed the “Bulldozer” owing to his zeal in building roads during his stint at the ministry of Works, clearly has his work cut- out. CCM, the ruling party, came into existence after the Tanzania African National Union (TANU), the party that…

Pope Francis called on world leaders last month to agree to a historic agreement to fight climate change and poverty at a Paris meet, facing the stark choice to either “improve or destroy the environment. Francis chose his first visit to the world’s poorest continent to issue a clarion call for the success of the two-week summit, known as COP21, that started on November 28 in the French capital still reeling from the November 13 attacks by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people. In a long address in Spanish at the United Nations regional office, Francis said it would…