Author: NLM Correspondent

By Jennigay Coetzer The biggest hurdle to the development of the rule of law in Africa is corruption, according to a new report by LexisNexis says. 52 percent of survey respondents said corruption was the number one impediment to advancing the rule of law. This was followed by government inefficiency, lack of transparency and accountability, lack of awareness, and a lack of motivation to change. Respondents in Nigeria said the lack of access to reliable legal information was their third biggest problem, as did respondents from organisations with more than 5000 employees, in-house counsel and trainee lawyers. Meanwhile, respondents from the judiciary…

Millions of dollars of public funds stolen by two of Kenya’s richest men are being returned to the country to buy life-saving Covid-19 equipment following a landmark agreement. The deal with Jersey, a self-governing island in the English Channel, has been hailed as “a victory for Kenya”. The entangled web of connections that eventually ended in this deal first emerged following a divorce case. Back in 2006, Samuel Gichuru, the wealthy boss of Kenya’s power company, and his wife Salome Njeri were divorced. When it came to splitting up their assets, Ms Njeri felt she was not getting her fair…

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ethiopian civil war, entering its second year, have been replete with calls for national dialogue to end the conflict. As of early January 2022, the best efforts of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, High Representative of the African Union Commission for the Horn of Africa, and others have yet to yield any visible progress, let alone agreement on a national dialogue process charged with establishing appropriate measures to secure the peace. This is the state of affairs notwithstanding that, currently, some of the most favorable circumstances for making the conflict ripe for resolution have emerged: neither…

Kenyans pride themselves with the status of one of the leading democracies in Africa, as attested to our relatively free democratic and governance space. And the country’s General Election in August this year will undoubtedly be one of the most significant political events in Africa. Other countries aspire to Kenya’s stability, economic muscle, and diplomatic leadership in a traditionally turbulent region. This is, essentially, a reason for pride. But, as happens every election cycle, Kenyan leaders are increasingly looking inward. They have thrown all caution to the wind, spewing dangerous rhetoric, threatening the electoral and undermining the country’s capacity to…

The point that natural gas serves as a transitional energy source is one that has been promoted by African nations for a long time Africa’s call for a just and inclusive energy transition has been answered through the European Union’s landmark proposal to label natural gas as a ‘green’ energy source. Historically, Africa has always fought for sustainable development because we know, first-hand, the ravaging effects that even minute changes in climate can have on the continent and its populations. But to develop sustainably, Africa must first industrialize itself. It must have the same opportunities as Europe and other western…

By Kenyatta Otieno L ast year I came across a post in a popular Facebook Group that got me asking questions about interactions between families on the paternal lineage. The post implied that paternal relatives are mostly evil, unlike maternal relatives who are often loving and supportive. Almost everyone who commented on it agreed with it and some even went ahead to give examples how paternal relatives had let them down. It was a roll of paternal relatives bashing with tangible toxicity. I did not agree with it. Famous Igbo novelist Chinua Achebe wrote in Things Fall Apart: “It is…

By David Wanjala One of the misconceptions that have endured the test of time in gender relations is that women are weaker. Jackson Mue, the director of Field Services at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), for instance, confesses that for a long time, based on his early acculturation, he believed that women were not destined for tough, technical and bold responsibilities. That is what he was told, and what he believed over time. However, as Mue grew older and gained more experience, he discovered, like most men do, that this was not only a lie but also an extremely…

With the transition into hybrid work, the experience is not collective or uniform in the same way that it was with remote By Holger Reisinger What teams experienced in the 12 months following the outbreak of a global pandemic was far more than an experiment with remote work; many employees and leaders simultaneously underwent a collective awakening to the fragility of life and the opportunities of what work could be in a (post-) pandemic era. This blend of fear and hope bonded people in ways that the pre-pandemic status quo could never have. With the backdrop of a global pandemic,…

By James Gardner In 2022, law firms have access to more marketing tools than ever before. Deciding which to utilise and build upon is not a simple task, but one that all lawyers and firms must tackle in order to reach new clients. 1. Video, Video, Short Form Video and Audio Video is not going away and it is important to consider it when planning your legal marketing strategy for this year, as consumers are increasingly looking to absorb information through video. While some will put the time into reading a long blog post, others who may not have the…

By Gilbert Muyumbu Perhaps nothing sums up the promise of the NARC administration better than seeing the newly-appointed Tourism minister Raphael Tuju walking to KICC and throwing officials of then just defeated ruling party KANU, out of the party’s headquarters at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). This was one of the first acts of reclaiming public property from the misappropriation it had been subjected to under the just-ended KANU administration. The KANU administration had turned the publicly-funded KICC into its party headquarters. NARC, having campaigned on a platform of reclaiming public property lost to corruption under KANU, reversed this,…