Author: NLM Correspondent

Professor John Harbeson In my monthly essays for the Nairobi Law Monthly, I try to focus single-mindedly on subjects that have meaning for sub-Saharan Africa in general, and Kenya and Eastern Africa in particular. But as I do so, always and increasingly in the back of my mind, a quiet but persistent voice asks, “doesn’t all this apply to the US as well?” The answer is invariably “yes”. This month, as I write, by contrast, the domestic terrorist assault on the US Capitol Building in Washington is front and center in my mind while, at the same time, I wonder…

Physicists, engineers and astronauts alike continue to speculate on the existence of life on the planet Mars. The latest expression of that interest is the Mars Rover Perseverance, which is currently travelling across the surface of the planet, collecting data on its weather and environment. Perseverance was launched on July 20, 2020 and was confirmed to have successfully landed on Mars seven months later, on February 18, 2021. Like its predecessor Curiosity, Perseverance has the goal of looking for ancient life and collecting samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for a possible return to Earth and further…

Although most prosecutors legally and ethically perform their duties, their practices and policies often produce unjust results, which spells the need for urgent reform By Austin Ekea The Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (ODPP), which derives its mandate from Article 157 (6) of the Constitution, is the national prosecuting authority in Kenya. The drafters of the Constitution 2010 saw it wise and necessary to relieve the Attorney General of prosecutorial powers, in whose office all state prosecution was vested. The AG also acted as the DPP prior to the 2010 Constitution. The main reason the Attorney General lost…

By Brahima S Coulibaly Soon, more countries will either be in or at high risk of debt distress. One of the key challenges and priorities for policymakers in 2021 will undoubtedly be sovereign debt sustainability and the broader issue of financing for development. To be sure, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, sovereign debt across sub-Saharan Africa had been increasing due to growing financing needs against the backdrop of insufficient domestic resource mobilization. The 2008-2009 global financial crisis resulted in ultra-low global interest rates and facilitated access to capital markets for many countries that took advantage of investor reach for…

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…