Author: NLM Correspondent

Identifying constraints to growth an essential first step in designing an appropriate policy response. BY John Page Structural change is taking place in Africa, but export-led manufacturing is playing a much smaller role than it did in East Asia, and services—some with quite low productivity—now absorb the bulk of African workers leaving agriculture and moving to cities. These differences in structural change reflect the impact of technological progress, a changing global marketplace, and natural resource endowments on Africa’s industrialization prospects. At the same time, reductions in transport costs and progress in information and communications technology have created services and agribusinesses…

By NLM Writer ‘While President Kenyatta may have campaigned for the constitution, it has never stopped him from trampling on it when it served his purposes’ — Author The Constitution of Kenya 2010 is revolutionary in character and transformative in intent. It is revolutionary because it proposes a radical shift from the old order where power centred on the Executive, and transformative in that it is not just a law to Kenyans but a means towards socio-economic emancipation. The Constitution is also liberal democratic. Above all, it emphasizes individual autonomy which extends to freedom of enterprise — ours is a…

These are extraordinary times, but human rights law still applies BY NDUNG’U WAINAINA It seems the majority of Kenyans are yet to internalize the impact of Covid-19. It is not just another humanitarian crisis. There is not a ‘normal’ to go back to. Covid-19 will cause serious disruptions to the social, economic, political, cultural, security, and financial systems of the world. Demagoguery and old school politics are going to collapse under the heavy COVID-19 earthquake. The coronavirus pandemic seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of economic and financial globalization. Global supply chains will drastically change…

By Antony Mutunga It took more than 50 years for the world to globalize. Now, as a result of several technologies, the whole process seems to be going back in reverse. People are no longer socializing at events like they used to. Today, everything is done online – from getting the latest news to communicating with family and friends, whether they be close by or far away. Furthering de-globalization or self-sufficiency, even more, has been President Donald Trump, whose mission from before he was elected, was to make America great again by any means possible. The means ended up being…

Is Kenya the only country where a multinational abuses national and international labour laws without as much as a whimper from the government? EPRA doesn’t care By Kevin Motaroki For years now, the French petroleum company, Total SA, through its Kenyan subsidiary, Total Kenya, has subjected its dealers to unfair and unethical business practices that have gone on unabated. This has led to many business owners operating under Total to run into avoidable losses or close shop. Both Financial and Young Dealers told the Nairobi Law Monthly they are adversely affected by the unfair, intimidatory, and monopolistic practices by the…

By Joy Cherotich Kenya shelters about 500,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR-Kenya. 53.7 percent of these refugees and asylum seekers come from Somalia, 24.7 percent from South Sudan, 9 percent from Congo, and 5.8 percent from Ethiopia. The rest are from Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, and Uganda. Based on UNHCR statistics, 44 percent of them reside in Kakuma and 40 percent in Dadaab. Urban refugees make up to 16 percent of the population of refugees and asylum seekers. A camp market assessment was done in Dadaab and Kakuma by…

With time, it is increasingly clear that the game was always to prop-up Gideon Moi By Kenyatta Otieno The coronavirus stopped reggae. For the first time in many decades, for a whole month from early March, nobody spoke about politics. It was not even featured on the local news where it has been a mainstay for as long as any of us can remember. Both the Kieleweke – which drives the BBI agenda — and Tangatanga brigades went on mute. Raila Odinga and William Ruto retreated to their cocoons in self-imposed quarantine. Then, in response to questions about their whereabouts,…

Three months after the first case of COVID-19 was detected in sub-Saharan Africa, the region has made progress in tackling the virus. Many countries implemented lockdowns and key public health measures early, and these appear to have helped slow down the spread of the coronavirus. However, there are concerns that if these measures are relaxed too quickly, COVID-19 cases could start to increase rapidly. “We are seeing some rapid increases compared to two weeks ago. Reported cases have tripled in five countries and doubled in ten countries, noting that most countries still have fewer than 1,000 reported cases,” said Dr…

The coronavirus testing row between Kenya and Tanzania is getting dirty with retaliatory politics creeping in. Tanzania last month called Kenya’s testing of truck drivers at the Namanga border point a smear campaign against tourism in Arusha, Tanzania. A statement from the Arusha Regional Commission said Tanzania had put in place a system of collecting samples for testing drivers crossing the Namanga border from Kenya. Curiously, the statement also gave a tabulation of infections at the border, including those of Kenyans, but kept the numbers for a certain country secret in a paragraph that reads: “Samples were taken from 44 truck drivers from Kenya on…

Kenyan authorities are potentially facilitating transmission of the Covid-19 virus while forcefully quarantining tens of thousands of people in facilities that lack proper sanitation, protective equipment and food, Human Rights Watch, Kenya Human Rights Commission, and Journalists for Justice said in May. The authorities have also held crowds of people in the arrivals area at the Nairobi airport for more than four hours with no physical distancing, sanitizers, or masks; ferried people in packed buses with little ventilation; and, at the quarantine facilities, failed to enforce quarantine guidelines issued by the Health ministry. The authorities also have forced people into quarantine…