Author: NLM Correspondent

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…

By Jackie Bischof The Sh10 billion investment from global payments giant Mastercard in the mobile money business arm of Airtel Africa announced last week is a sign of the rapid growth and optimism in Africa’s digital payment sector. The transaction values the subsidiary, Airtel Mobile Commerce, at Sh286 billion. It follows a Sh20 billion million investment in the company by TPG’s Rise Fund just two weeks ago. Both TPG and Mastercard now have minority stakes in the company. More than half of the world’s mobile money services are located in Africa, according to a recent report by GSMA, making it a fertile market…

By Zawadi Onyango In early 2020, a press release statement announcing a book deal co-signed by Adelle Onyango, to co-author a book with Lanji Ouko-Awori stirred an online conversation around gender, the law and violence in Kenya and East Africa. The authors recently revealed the cover of the latest book titled “Our Broken Silence”. Published by the internationally-acclaimed publishing firm, Goye Publishers, “Our Broken Silence” was recently awarded the Writer’s Guild of Kenya Impact Literature Award. In the form of diary entries, the book explores the murky journey and plight rape survivors, observers, family members, activists, nurses, and lawyers, among…

Media mogul and billionaire Samuel Kamau Macharia is in court seeking orders to become his grandson’s guardian, to take over the management of the seventeen-year old’s multi-million inheritance. At stake is a Sh389 million life insurance, a pension payout whose beneficiary is the grandson, Adam Kamau Macharia as per the deceased father’s wish, and a multi-million estate left behind by S.K’s late son John Gichia Macharia who according to court documents had no relationship with the tycoon at the time of his death.   SK, who owns Royal Media Services (RMS), in the originating summons, asks the court to appoint him as…

By Mohamed F. Ahmed The political tables in Jubaland are turning. President Ahmed Madobe, in power since 2009, who came to power as a terrorist-turned-reformer with the promise to crush Al-Shabaab in Jubaland and support the broader Somalia agenda of regaining control of swathes of the country has failed to do so. The last two years have been particularly problematic for relations between Jubaland and Villa Somalia – the seat of Somalia’s federal government. Madobe has been working in overdrive to frustrate the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and thwart President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s chances of reelection. Pundits point out…

Recently released filings in Nigeria and Kenya show assets under management for banks, insurers, and pension funds have grown 17 percent in the past year. This is despite a global backdrop of protectionism and the politicisation of development institutions investing in emerging markets. The administration of US president Joe Biden is set to change these conditions, with multilateral policy aimed at cooperation and growth for low- and middle-income countries. African asset managers should prepare for greater flows of capital from abroad into African banks, increased capacity-building support for local financial and insurance institutions, and larger government balance sheets. It is…