Author: NLM Correspondent

Over the next decades, the number of people in retirement age will increase markedly and put social security systems under severe stress The dramatic shift in demographics is best characterized by the increase in the global old-age dependency ratio: Until 2050, it will grow by a whopping 77 percent to 25 percent, i.e., faster than in the last 70 years since 1950. In many emerging economies the ratio is going to more than double within the next three decades, that is, in less than half of the time this development took in Europe and Northern America. The most prominent example…

MFS Africa, the pan-African payments gateway which connects wallets across different mobile money platforms through its API, has acquired Beyonic, a digital payments services provider for enterprises which operates in Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. As part of the acquisition, MFS Africa will absorb Beyonic’s entire team while Luke Kyohere, CEO of Beyonic, will join MFS Africa’s leadership team. MFS Africa will also offer Beyonic’s enterprise-focused service as a product under its wider brand. The acquisition, terms of which are undisclosed, remains subject to regulatory approval by the Fair Competition Commission in Tanzania. Since being founded in 2009, Johannesburg-based…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA In April, Kenya legalized the use of unmanned aircraft systems, for both commercial and recreational purposes. Their sale, assembly, modification, manufacturing and testing is subject to approval by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) under the Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Regulations, 2019. Kenyans looking to own or import a drone will have to register with KCAA in order to be issued with a certificate.  Foreigners on the other hand will be allowed to rent one locally and get a 30-day temporary permit. The earlier proposed permit charge was reduced to Sh3,000 from Sh20,000. According to Gilbert…

Prototypes indicate that they will look quite similar to regular eyeglasses and not some futuristic wearables. BY DAVID ONJILI The most reliable of global tech reviewers have been whispering about it for the past few years, but now it is just a matter of when and not if. Apple will be releasing the Apple Glasses most likely between March and June 2021. But what are some of the rumoured features that Apple is likely to incorporate in them? The Google glasses that were to revolutionize the wearable segment of tech devices failed miserably. According to Tech reviewer, Clara Yoon, the…

Collaboration between governments, airports and airlines will be vital for travel corridors to work effectively. BY JEREMY SPRINGALL In 2020 new vocabulary has seeped into global consciousness. From ‘new normal’ to the more practical yet equally disliked ‘social distancing’, the additions to this year’s dictionary paint a bleak, dystopian picture. But in the last few weeks, fresh terms are being met with interest from wanderlust-stricken travellers and cautious optimism from governments and businesses hoping to rebound from the economic damage of COVID-19. ‘Travel bubbles’, ‘travel corridors’ and ‘air bridges’ are terms to describe formal agreements between governments allowing travellers to…

Individually, each is an organ of Government; collectively, they constitute an arm of Government BY EDWIN MUSONYE  The concept of Independent commissions and Offices (ICOs) is embedded in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. ICOs are not an addendum to the supreme law; they have an explicit mandate to protect the sovereignty of the people, secure the observance by all State organs of democratic values and principles, and promote constitutionalism. This means ICOs are actually powerful, relevant, and legitimate. This new order, meant to pull and hold politics and administrative practices up to a higher standard, has brought drastic changes in…

BY DR WESTEN K SHILAHO  The bulwark of Kenya’s democratisation is the rule of law – specifically the implementation of the 2010 constitution. The supreme law, which was only realised after a protracted struggle, provides for vertical and horizontal checks and balances. But a cohort of reactionary politicians – beneficiaries of the one party autocracy which ended in 1991 – have repeatedly set about undermining these checks and balances. They have done so by hollowing out the legislature, judiciary, office of the Attorney General and independent oversight bodies. Even county governments, the second tier of government, face interference, including militarisation…

BY PETER MWANGI Police service leadership world-wide is currently smarting from an unprecedented mass outrage following the recent bizarre murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the US. Kenya too is among countries such as India and South Africa where police brutality has been evidenced, particularly while enforcing safety measures against the raging Covid-19 pandemic. The degrading treatment of Mercy Cherono, an alleged crime suspect, by police officers in Nakuru adds to the charges. However, the global characteristic of the disturbing phenomenon is most telling. The core essence of policing is law enforcement and protection of life and…

Questions and reflections from the Law Society’s 100-years of history in restraining the Kenyan state BY GILBERT MUYUMBU More than 120 years since the first lawyers arrived in Kenya as vakils from India, the country’s premier bar association, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), has emerged, evolved, fought battles, won some and lost others, all in an effort to ensure respect for rule of law across the country, not least by the Kenyan state. LSK’s precise origin is unknown, although some authors trace it to 1911. Prior to its formation, advocates practising in Kenya were regulated by Kenya’s High Court,…

BY YINKA ADEGOKE While the global Covid-19 pandemic has overwhelmed governments and citizens around the world in all kinds of ways many of the challenges they had at the start of 2020 are still very much present. The first three months of 2020 were the second hottest on record going back to 1880, according to the National Centres for Environmental Information. Climate adaptation costs in Africa are predicted to reach up to $50 billion a year by 2050 in the event of the planet warming by an additional 2°C. The risks associated with climate change may be at least as…