Author: NLM Correspondent

AGNES awino In the recent past in Kenya, the debate on local content requirements has raised dust within and beyond the petroleum sector. With all the talk, we could do with some clarity on the related underpinning legal principles. The following extract of an interview with Professor Albert Mumma, Energy Law Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, offers some insight. Thinking about the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Draft Bill, 2015, and the local content requirements, there has been disgruntlement among local communities. They claim they are not getting what they should out of the petroleum in their area, but…

Lanji Ouko Before the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010, the law did not stipulate the fate of children born out of wedlock, in terms of maintenance and child support. Section 24 (3) of the Children Act, 2001 provided that where the child’s father and mother were not married to each other at the time of the child’s birth and have not subsequently married each other, the mother shall have parental responsibility at the first instance. Under Section 25, the father only acquired parental responsibility for the child if he applied to the court for it, through an agreement with…

Harold Ayodo Concerns have come to the fore over family laws that compel spouses to remain bed fellows in marriages that are empty shells. Lawyers attending a recent Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Seminar on Family Laws at Hilton Hotel in Nairobi are now calling for amendment of family laws to allow spouses to divorce on mutual consent – which is currently not allowed. In daily life, when marriages hit the rocks, some couples prefer to end it with as little trauma as possible – by mutual consent as provided for in countries like the US and India. Locally, it is…

Dr Charles Khamala Because government-related agencies themselves fail to correct private sector market distortions – for both justice as efficiency and/or to obtain equity – there emerges a voluntary, not-for-profit sector. According to William Twining, “perhaps the most important problem that faces the legal profession in a poor, developing country is how to provide adequate legal services for the public at large where most to the public is indigent.” This is because, he says, “Under the British influence the adversary model of judicial proceedings has been imported into East Africa.” The function of non-governmental organisations is not to supplant the…

Vincent Chahale The Kenyan Constitution has been lauded as one of the most progressive in the world, on account of its broad approach, appreciation and specific provisions on fundamental rights as provided in the Bill of Rights, the vesting of sovereignty in the people, the decongestion of power (executive, legislative and judicial) and devolution. The placement of the provisions for socio-economic rights in the Bill of Rights as opposed to having them imbued in the preamble as directive principles of state policy enhances their guarantee. However, the main task in ensuring these gains are realised is through appropriate implementation strategies…

Recent events have seen Kenya come to a momentary standstill, with all manner of political hogwash being rifled left, right and centre as every manner of analysts offered explanation as to why virtually all the sectors of the economy are grinding to a halt. From the striking teachers and nurses, protesting dockworkers to the NYS saga, the sugar debacle after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to Uganda, the tumbling shilling, most recently the university crisis and the politician’s favourite – the ICC puzzle of who “snitched” on whom – the grand clowns of Kenyan politics battled to offer the most useless…

Newton Arori There are no more trophies for saying that our Parliament has failed. Pointers to this fact are numerous. So let us sum it up by an observation by Walter Khobe in his eye-opening piece “Reflections on Five Years of Transformative Constitutionalism in Kenya: Chimerical or Viable?” He says: “The National Assembly has emerged as the biggest threat to the transformative agenda of the Constitution.” Several views have been given regarding our failed Parliament, particularly the National Assembly. One is that MPs are ill-informed, inept and generally low-calibre. While this is not entirely untrue, it is not the…

By Alpha Femi “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office”. These are the famous words of America’s seventh president Andrew Wilson (1829–1837) about the conduct of the United States House Commons, a state of affairs that now mirrors the affairs of our own National Assembly. Renowned English musician and actor Raymond Douglas “Ray” Davies couldn’t have put it better when he said…

KIBE MUNGAI The outcome of the last general election gave Jubilee the two ultimate political prizes in a presidential system of government, namely the presidency and control of Parliament. Two years later, serious doubts have started to emerge on whether Jubilee had a clear vision for this country or legitimate public interest to seek and exercise power beyond the personal ambitions of its captains. The Kenyan State and economy are in a serious crisis and confidence in the goodwill and intentions of our leaders is diminishing. Besides the statistics purveyed by Cord leader Raila Odinga, most of the other statistics…

Ali Abdi “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” –John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States Napoleon once remarked: “When a king is a kind man, his reign is judged to be a failure.” This is a warrant for tyranny, a self-justifying ordinance that presumes power to be the principle of effective governance. And because governance is founded on law, the Napoleonic view is that law is a question not of morality, but of power. Law, in this way of thinking, is not about what is right, but about what works. Society is seen…