Author: NLM Correspondent

Welcome to Paradise — also known as Baxter’s Beach, the Caribbean resort village at the center of Cherie Jones’s dazzling debut novel, “How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House.” The year is 1984, and the orphaned teenager Lala is being raised by her grandmother Wilma. The trouble in Paradise is that men can’t control themselves, infidelity is a given, sex is currency and domestic abuse is in full bloom like lush tropical foliage. The novel’s title is derived from a cautionary tale Wilma tells a 13-year-old Lala: about a “good-for-nothing,” wayward sister with “a taste for things that her mother…

By Cynthia Wairimu There’s the fear of something, and then there’s extreme fear to the point that, in its presence, all manner of sense flies out of the window and instead one is filled with extreme anxiety, excessive fear, dread, panic and reactions that tend to be unreasonable. Even when the objects of fear are harmless and pose no danger. We call this having a phobia. Phobias can result from traumatic events, or watching others experiencing something traumatic or informational transmission excesses. We have heard of the most common of them such as arachnophobia – the fear of spiders, claustrophobia…

By Lydiah Kemunto Bosire I have long struggled with ‘brain drain’ because it is analytically loose, lumping the mobility of Zambian nurses to London in the same bucket as that of Kenyan students going to MIT. Last year, in a conversation with a former president of a leading global foundation, I asked how he’d addressed the issue of ‘brain drain’ in his work. The topic was on my mind because two potential investors – ironically, a white South African in Canada and an Indian-American in Europe, no doubt in their jobs because of some version of student or talent mobility –…

By Olalekan Moyosore Lalude Africa’s transition from a continent of colonial protectorates to independent states has been met with developmental and political challenges. From the 1960s, the political trajectory of Africa witnessed many regimes, regimes that have made their mark on the continent. The struggle for the legitimacy of state power between the African people and the regimes whose policies have shaped the political history of the continent oscillated between nationalistic interest and arbitrariness, at a time when the newly independent states needed a definite political direction. For instance by 2002, the nationalistic government of Robert Mugabe had left Zimbabwe…

Communications strategies during litigation: what impact can PR have on a legal case? By Alex Felton Where did all this begin? In April 2018, The Sun newspaper published a column by their executive editor Dan Wootton, entitled “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”. The offending words that piqued Depp’s litigious interest were the accusations in the headline of domestic abuse towards his ex-wife, the actress Amber Heard. A bona fide Hollywood A-lister, Johnny Depp sued News Group Newspapers (NGN, publishers of The Sun) over the column,…

There exist deep connections between Indigenous governance systems, Sacred Natural Sites and traditional seeds. By Carlotta Byrne Across Africa, a network of Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners is accompanying traditional and indigenous communities in the revival and enhancement of their Earth-centred customary governance systems. In Kenya, Uganda, Benin, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Cameroon, communities are reviving traditional knowledge and practices, restoring sacred natural sites and associated rituals, re-establishing indigenous seed diversity and food sovereignty, and strengthening ecological governance systems derived from the laws of the Earth. These civil-society-led initiatives to re-establish Earth-centred governance on the continent are founded on Africa’s rich…

Standard legal procedures have become almost unrecognisable from their state a year ago. What elements in commercial contracts are now receiving greater attention? By Jean-Marc Pettigrew For many businesses, existing commercial contracts came under sharp focus with the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020. With such a big shift in our day to day lives, some businesses who had previously been trading well suddenly faced a great drop in revenue and were quickly looking for ways to cut costs across the board, which meant taking a closer look at the long-term agreements they were locked into. Having drafted, reviewed, and…

The specific application of force majeure in the context of a pandemic is new and untested territory. As we all navigate the uncharted territory of the coronavirus, in the world of contracts the force majeure clause has come to the fore. By John Warchus You’d be forgiven for assuming a global pandemic counts as a force majeure, but this isn’t necessarily the case: not a single reported case law or English law authority exists on the operation of force majeure clauses in the context of epidemics or pandemics. Not that a well-drafted force majeure clause can’t be relied upon, but…

By David Onjili In November 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the Diesel Mobile Units (DMU) to help ease the dependence on vehicular transport into Nairobi. In December 2020, the Ministry of Transport launched DMUs plying the central business district to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) route. A passenger going to the JKIA has to board at the Nairobi Central Station to Embakasi Village, a 25-minute trip and, from there, take a BRT bus to JKIA, a 10-minute journey. The introductory fare was Sh500 one way from the CBD, a figure that did not go well with many Kenyans. Many opined…

The global community should create a non-profit remittance platform to provide a one-stop solution to keep remittances flowing and leverage them for development financing. By Dilip Ratha Remittances—money sent by migrants to families back home—provide a financial lifeline to millions of households. Remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $550 billion in 2019, surpassing foreign direct investment and official development aid. These are only recorded flows; the true size—including those through informal channels—is even larger. Remittance flows to sub-Saharan Africa were recorded to be $48 billion in 2019, but the true total is likely to be significantly larger. Nigeria…