Author: NLM Correspondent

By Wambui Wamunyu As we mark World Press Freedom Day 2021, let us remember that 2020 was terrible for the press in many parts of the world. Two ranking measures – the World Press Freedom Index 2021 and African Media Barometer publications – indicate that journalists globally continued to face multiple challenges. These included intimidation, physical or online harassment, surveillance, disappearance, threats, arbitrary arrests, assaults, and lack of access to public facilities, authorities or data. Reporters Without Borders reported that 50 journalists from around the world died in the course of duty. Their deaths were linked to investigative stories about corruption, misuse of public funds,…

While there may be Covid vaccine skepticism in some parts of the world, in Kenya, people are eager to get protected against the virus, the AFP reports. Almost 900,000 people have been inoculated with the first dose as the third wave has made people more active to get vaccinated, which has pushed up demand. To deal with the situation, some hospitals, such as the Metropolitan in Nairobi, has required people to make appointments one day before going to the hospital to get vaccinated. “The third wave is a bit extreme. People have realised that if you don’t get vaccinated, you…

The African Union (AU) called on Friday for the restoration of civilian rule in Chad, where General Mahamat Idriss Déby took power this week following the death of his father Idriss Déby Itno. In a statement, the AU Peace and Security Council, which is in charge of peace and security issues within the continental organisation, expressed its “grave concern” about the establishment of a military council headed by the son of the late president. Idriss Déby Itno, 68, who led the country with an iron fist for 30 years, died on Monday, according to the presidency, as a result of…

Lack of cogent succession planning, risk aversion and the halo effect are just some of the obstacles. By Patrick Smith Law firm partnerships are populated by some of the brightest and most educated people in the world, so there should be plenty of promising leaders in their ranks ready to take the reins when it’s needed. But that isn’t the case. Far from it. The leaders of major law firms are in fact some of the most successful, intelligent and ambitious professionals in the world. But being a good lawyer doesn’t make one a good leader. The risk aversion taught in law school and in…

By Mohamed F. Ahmed Somalia is expected to go to the polls to elect its president through direct universal suffrage in early 2023, its first in more than 50 years. If fairly run, that election is touted to usher in a new period of democracy and stability for a nation that has endured one of the world’s most arduous, costly, and bloody political journeys of the 21st Century — an election in 2023 will come six years after the historic Baidoa Consultative Conference of 2017, during which the Federal Government of Somalia and regional administrations laid the groundwork for a…

By Antony Mutunga COVID containment measures such as curfews and lock-downs continue to hit businesses hard, particularly in the real estate and transport sectors, which recorded ‘the most difficult year in 2020.’ According to Central Bank of Kenya data, transport and real estate recorded the highest number of defaults between March and December 2020, with the value of loans defaulted increasing by 45.25 percent to Sh99.5 billion. Additionally, the two sectors were responsible for a big chunk of new bad loans in the period. accounting for 46.27 percent of Sh67 billion in new bad loans. Particularly, loans acquired with title…

By Professor John Harbeson The most widely recognized democracy-measuring indices all concur that democracy has diminished across sub-Saharan Africa as well as globally every year since about 2005. Thirty years after the arrival of democracy’s “third wave” on African shores the story in sub-Saharan Africa has been one of rapid, broadly based democracy for a decade and a half followed by decade and a half of decline. On balance, Sub-Saharan Africa still remained measurably more democratic in 2020 than it was in 1990, but the marginal long-term difference has been gradually diminishing over each of the last fifteen years, seemingly…

By Professor John Harbeson In my columns for the Nairobi Law Monthly, I try to write in ways relevant to Kenya politics while avoiding the fact and appearance of taking sides in its ongoing controversies of the day. Accordingly, I have not written about the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) to date because it has been and remains a profoundly controversial political exercise. Moreover, it has manifestly been an exercise conducted by and for Kenyans alone. And yet, I think the BBI exercise has considerable significance in a way that transcends the circumstances that led to its birth and will attend…

By Antony Mutunga What was slowly evolving into a good year for the tourism sector has crumbled yet again following the move by the Kenyan government to impose new measures to slow the spread of a third wave of the coronavirus. Curfews, lockdowns in counties such as Nairobi, Machakos, and Kajiado as well as a halt to domestic flights are but a number of these new measures. With domestic flights grounded, the tourism sector has taken a major hit as it loses one of its biggest driving forces. Even as the government made a turnaround to allow international flights, it…

By Louise Fox Articles about employment issues in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) often start by highlighting two widely accepted trends: Africa has a young labor force with high youth unemployment, and Despite high growth, Africa has not been creating jobs for these youth. Often these trends are explained by a lack of structural transformation (a shift in the share of labor from low to high productivity sectors). New research shows that these statements do not hold for much of the subcontinent. While there are exceptions—most notably South Africa and several resource-rich or fragile states—the economic growth registered since 2000 was accompanied by a steady growth…