Author: NLM Correspondent

“Judges have to have the humility to recognise that they operate within a system of precedent, shaped by other judges equally striving to live up to the judicial oath” – John Roberts Kenya’s Judiciary, from both public perception and surveys conducted in the recent months, emerges as the most reformed governance institution and arm of government since the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, a fact largely attributed to reforms instituted under Chief Justice The Honourable Willy Mutunga. Indicators of this transformation abound: a significant reduction of the backlog of cases that has plagued the dissemination of justice for decades, the…

ALI ABDI “We must make up our minds to look for our protection not to legal terrors but to careful administration of justice” – Thucydides Government has always been the subject of intense discussion, and this has resulted   to a new wake, full of concrete proposals for reform in the legal and institutional framework undergirding the rule of law, the justice system, the Executive, the Legislature, the criminal justice system and the bar. Some of these reform measures have resulted in positive changes in the entrenchment of the rule of law in Kenya. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 included within…

AHMEDNASIR ABDULLAHI “Perhaps realising its own ambitious project and hence its vulnerability and fragility, the Kenyan Constitution sets, through the Judiciary, its barricades against the destruction of its values and weakening of its institutions by forces external to itself.  Such is the responsibility of Kenya’s Judiciary. Few countries in the world have shown the will, tenacity and single-mindedness, or even invested much time and resources to reform their Judiciary in the last decade as Kenya has. From the Executive-inspired Radical Surgery of 2003 to 2004 to the vetting of judges under the 2010 Constitution, Kenya has tried a potent mixture…

Alpha Femi As Kenyans marked the fifth anniversary of the 2010 Constitution described as one of the most progressive world over, not much attention was paid to the independent commissions created to spearhead its implementation. Yet these commissions continue to gobble billions of taxpayers’ money, and the public would expect a report card with a long list of Bills they have drafted to help achieve the five-year deadline for implementing the Constitution. It was not going to be a walk in the park in realising the transition from the old constitution, and it came as no surprise when the National…

Newton Arori The Constitution of Kenya establishes 10 commissions and two independent offices. These organs are designed to reinforce the system of checks and balances among constitutional institutions. Scholars have argued that the independent Commissions and Offices were formed to protect against abuse of power by the Executive; that such abuse was commonplace during previous regimes chiefly because the traditional imperial Presidency wielded too much power. Article 249(1) of the Constitution sets out the objects of the commissions as to (a) protect the sovereignty of the people; (b) secure the observance by all State organs of democratic values and principles;…

Caroline Theuri As Kenya prepares to host the 10th World Trade Organization conference in December, perhaps it is best to ask whether the country is a loser or winner in global trade. The 2014 economic survey argues that it is a winner, as it is expected to grow by 1.5 per cent in 2015, from 3.0 per cent during the last year. In 2014, for instance, the country’s balance of payments (BOP) was Sh126.1 billion, up  from Sh 31.8 billion in 2013. BOP is a measure of the fiscal transactions between one country and another. It looks at such factors as…

…Notwithstanding the completely false historiography by its present intelligentsia, the West has shown that it usually takes a revolution to bring about  a new political thought-system into line with the econo-intellectual base that has given rise to that new thought. All the important liberal regimes in the West took power through revolutions, some of them extraordinarily violent and destructive. A political party which allows itself to be criticised through its own medium clearly shows that it is conscious of its strength and maturity. Unluckily for Kenya’s ruling party, this strength was vitiated beyond redemption by the party’s own contumacious refusal…

TNLM Writer The last two years have been trying times for our fledgling democracy. It has been a period of “democratic recession”. President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have no known record of supporting democratic reforms towards open, free society. The past regimes they have been members, strong supporters and defenders of are known for their authoritarianism, deep-seated corruption and patronage politics. It is no surprise that today both are accused of undermining democratic values, overstepping their constitutional mandates, upsetting the independence of the press and civil society, and viciously attacking the independence of democratic state institutions such…

BY  MAORE ITHULA It is 10 a.m. and the searing heat of Tana River County is already taking its toll on baby Amina who is strapped on the back of her mother, Asha. Amina cries uncomfortably and to mollify her, Asha shifts the toddler to the front so that the infant can continue suckling as we trek. Mother and daughter are struggling to catch up because they are pushing a donkey that is laden with all manner of household goods. As head of his small family, Abdul Hassam is driving his livestock within a huge herd that belongs to many…

BY NDUNG’U WAINAINA Kenya is in a critical situation of trying to consolidate a fragile transitional phase of the country from decades of authoritarianism and macabre violence, and the promulgation of new constitutional order that created the devolved system of governance. Concrete steps would be necessary in order to address solidly the deep-seated fragility, long-standing social political and economical grievances confronting the country, and re-evaluating the roles and functions of nascent constitutional social institutions that form the basis of securing political and social stability of the country in long run. The Constitution of Kenya establishes a new era of democratic,…