Author: NLM Correspondent

Leading Pan-African Payments Company Cellulant and its all-in-one Payments gateway Tingg, have won 4 awards in the just-concluded World Business Outlook Awards. The World Business Outlook is a Singapore-based print and online magazine providing coverage and analysis of the financial industry, international business and the global economy. It is driven to serve its readers, viewers, and attendees with comprehensive business updates. Cellulant is winning the World Business Outlook Awards for the second year. The Company won two awards in 2021 as the: “Leading Financial Technology Company in Africa 2021” and “Best Digital Payment Service provider in Africa 2021.” “The World Business Outlook Awards…

Since their emergence, cryptocurrencies have continued to solidify their position in the financial system. And, despite fluctuations in their value, their popularity worldwide has soared as many have invested in the many different cryptocurrencies that have popped up since Bitcoin. Facing its first significant conflict in the Russia-Ukraine crisis and at a time when regulating digital assets is a topic, cryptocurrencies are currently facing a major hurdle which will either make them more popular, or it will be the start of their fall. In the context of Russia invading Ukraine in the middle of the first quarter of 2022, cryptocurrencies…

By Antony Mutunga For about two months now, Kenyans have faced a fuel challenge that saw many forced to abandon using their private vehicles to prolonged queues at petrol stations as the majority on the road lined up to refuel where they could. The issue that started with holding out for fuel prices to rise seems to be far from over as the World Bank cast doubt on whether the Kenyan government would be able to sustain its current fuel subsidy programme if the Russia-Ukraine conflict was to continue. According to its 2022 Africa’s Pulse Report, Boosting Resilience: The Future…

As the Sub-Saharan African economy struggles to recover from the 2020 recession induced by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the region now faces new economic growth challenges, compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse, a biannual analysis of the near-term regional macroeconomic outlook, estimates growth at 3.6 percent in 2022, down from 4 percent in 2021 as the region continues to deal with new COVID-19 variants, global inflation, supply disruptions and climate shocks. Adding to the region’s growth challenges are rising global commodity prices, which are increasing at a faster pace since the onset of the…

By Gilbert Muyumbu As we saw in the first part of this article, the Kibaki administration faced perhaps the most dynamic rule of law contexts of any administration in Kenya’s history. At least three dimensions characterised the context: retention of the status quo inherited from the preceding Moi era, which constituted the first dimension; managing the post-election crisis, which formed the second dimension; and adopting the new 2010 constitution, which characterised the third dimension. Just as activities, movements and shifts in the larger cosmos have effects which we see here on planet earth, the activities, movements and shifts in the…

Courts are not so sacrosanct as to be above criticism BY Kabakua Mbogori While delivering the BBI judgment on March 31, 2022, the Chief Justice (CJ) and the president of the Supreme Court, Martha Koome, made a surprising remark that caught everybody unawares. The statement admonished three outspoken lawyers for what the CJ termed the” use of social media to disparage the court to lower the dignity and authority of the court or influence the outcome of a case pending before the court.” According to the CJ, “for counsel to appear before the apex court then proceed to hurl unnecessary…

By Omwanza Ombati On March 31, 2022, the Supreme Court of Kenya rendered its decision in Attorney General v Ndii & 73 others; Akech (Amicus curiae) (Petition E016 of 2021) [2021] KESC 20 (KLR), (hereinafter the BBI Judgment), where it addressed itself on seven pertinent issues. The Supreme Court of Kenya (SCOK) had the opportunity to address itself on seven (7) broad grounds discerned from the appeal to which it held: The Basic Structure Doctrine does not apply in Kenya; The President cannot initiate a popular initiative of a constitutional amendment under article 257 of the Constitution; The Second Schedule…

By Jonathan Muneno The global economic crisis triggered by the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year has intensified the risk of declining trade integration between countries. A process referred to as the deglobalisation of trade. The pandemic sent shocks through supply chains across the world. As a result, companies in some advanced economies have started to prioritise bringing production that was previously outsourced to Asia back home – or closer to home. The expectation is that this will avert ongoing – and future – supply-chain disruptions, ensuring a steady and reliable supply of goods. …

The tips of the butterfly: Linking East Asia and Africa By Greg Mills and Marie-Noelle Nwokolo In the late 1990s, South Africa’s then-Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin likened the country’s trade strategy to a “butterfly,” according to which the thorax ran north-south to Europe and North America, while the “wings” oriented west-east were to link Africa with Latin America and Asia. Erwin’s concept promised much then, as now, for a diversification effort, but so far has delivered less. Still, there is much to gain from closer regional ties, in at least two respects. The first of these is underscored…

In May 2019, a data breach affected more than 11.5 million Safaricom subscribers; Safaricom employees carried it out. After a whistle-blower, Mr Benard Kabugi, reported the matter to Safaricom and the police, a sting operation was conducted that helped identify and arrest the perpetrators, with the whistle-blower, Benedict Kabugi, variously treated as a prosecution witness and afterwards as part of the ring that stole subscriber data. At the behest of Safaricom, Mr Kabugi was arrested and charged in court for ‘demanding hundreds of millions of shillings’ as bounty hunting fees. Miffed by this turn of events, Mr Kabugi filed a…