Author: NLM Correspondent

David Hoile Imagine if there were a criminal court in Britain which only ever tried black people, which ignored crimes committed by whites and Asians and only took an interest in crimes committed by blacks. We would consider that racist, right? And yet there is an International Criminal Court which only ever tries black people, African black people to be precise, and it is treated as perfectly normal. In fact the court is lauded by many radical activists as a good and decent institution, despite the fact that no non-black person has ever been brought before it to answer…

Joshua Kembero Ogega Is Kenya Airways “too big to fail”? Was Mumias Sugar Company “too big to fail”? These are the questions that have inundated Kenyans since President Uhuru Kenyatta presented a billion-shilling cheque to bail out Mumias Sugar and bring it into operation and since Kenya Airways announced its record Sh25.7 billion loss, and the proposed Sh60 billion bail-out. This seems to be old news to most Kenyans, especially those who witnessed the fall of major corporations during President Moi’s regime. It must be remembered that most of the corporations that collapsed during this time were the type that…

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) chief executive wants political activist Mutahi Ngunyi charged with incitement. Mboya wrote to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) over inciteful social media hate speeches made by Ngunyi against a specific community. Mboya submits that the words uttered by Ngunyi are intended to incite feelings of contempt, hostility and violence against a community on the basis of ethnicity – an offence under Section 62 of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Act. ‘Mentally enslaved’ “My attention has been drawn to the contents of the Twitter account of one Mutahi Ngunyi…” writes Mboya.…

When former registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Shollei stood in the dock to answer to charges of abuse of office last month, the picture painted was that of a subdued woman, a stranger to the once-powerful, fire-spitting Judiciary executive that she was. Shollei has the subject of investigations regarding corruption and abuse of office since she was ejected out of her powerful post about two years ago. And two months ago, an embattled Shollei sneaked out of the country in an attempt to escape the inevitability of the charges she is now facing, but was soon to return when it…

Media reports last month that a police lorry had been nabbed ferrying scores of illegal aliens from the border with Ethiopia left Kenyans stunned as to the levels of corruption in the Police Service, and raised questions if there is any patriotism left among some of our serving police officers. Meru County Deputy County Commissioner Apollo Okello’s sentiments that “the country cannot be secure if law enforcement officers are the same people breaking the rules they are supposed to uphold” rhymed with the thoughts of many, who took to social media to express their outrage. Instances of the police…

The failed case against President Uhuru Kenyatta moved into the spotlight again last month when judges demanded a fresh inquiry into whether government obstructed access to crucial evidence against him. An effort to prosecute Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court collapsed when ODPP said it had insufficient evidence to link him to deadly ethnic violence after the 2007 elections, when he was deputy prime minister. But appellate judges at the court issued an order directing the trial court to re-examine one aspect of the case: whether Kenyatta’s government had actively obstructed the original prosecution. A planned trial of Kenyatta,…

Prof John Harbeson It should be widely understood as axiomatic that elections alone do not a democracy make. When an election is effectively a one-party plebiscite rather than a multi-party contest and one party captures all several hundred parliamentary seats, I would have thought the probability that such an outcome could occur in a free and fair election to be so miniscule that it should be dismissed out of hand.  When it has been widely known and reported that in that country the press and electronic media people have been imprisoned for their criticisms of the ruling regime, independent civil…

Greece can take lessons from Africa Quite often, I have heard people describe the economic crisis in Greece as one similar to the “usual African tragedy”. Considering the HIV infection rates in Greece have increased rampantly, as have drug abuse and prostitution, it does not sit well with me whenver I get this comparison of the situation elsewhere to that of the African continent. Other often-cited characteristics between Greece and African states include poor economic governance and consequences of structural underdevelopment.Indeed, a part of me argues it out and even pulls out the race card; but another part of me…

“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…