One of the advantages the State enjoys over other institutions is its monopoly of the legal instruments that compel citizens to comply with laws and regulations which guide public affairs. That means, for instance, that since it has investigative instruments, such as the various arms of the police service, the State has within its powers the legal mechanisms to arrest any citizen who violates the country’s laws. As such, and this is an important part of my argument, the State does not need to resort to extra-legal or extra-judicial methods as its first line of dealing with citizens it considers…
Author: Mbugua Ng’ang’a
There are three forests that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, now headed by Mr Davis Chirchir, has targeted for excision to pave way for construction of two roads and a border town. The most controversial one remains the proposal to hive off 51.64 acres that will ostensibly be converted for the expansion of Kiambu Road. Already, the Green Belt Movement, founded by Prof Wangari Maathai, has gone to court to challenge the proposal, which is not surprising given that the announcement came amid the so-called harvesting of mature trees at the forest. The move has generated heated debate in…
At the turn of the year, a teacher from Nyeri lamented that even as her school was preparing to receive learners for the new term, teachers were facing a humongous crisis because the school does not have a classroom to accommodate Grade Nine learners. “The Competency-Based Curriculum requires us to be innovative, engage in critical thinking and problem solving, but we do not know what to do in this circumstance,” she said. One option was for teachers to vacate the staff room to accommodate the learners, but where would they work from? Ironically, a nearby secondary school has an empty…
There is an erroneous perception that new voters are not eligible to sign up with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) unless and until commissioners have been appointed and installed. The truth, however, is that any citizen with an Identity Card can walk into any IEBC office in any corner of the country and register as a voter. It is important to share this information given that there appears to be a deliberate attempt to delay the reconstitution of the electoral commission. The upshot of this is that once commissioners are appointed, there will be insufficient time for new…
Although the just-ended 16 days of activism against gender violence are an important part of Kenya’s human rights calendar, it is important for the media to go beyond highlighting cases of violence to set agenda on how we can mainstream gender issues to be in line with our Constitution. As we prepare for 2025, the media can adopt, as one of its agendas, the need to mainstream gender inclusion in all spheres of national life and put in place mechanisms to measure the impact that this will have on the overall well-being of society, not just in the political arena.…
Something was bound to give. It eventually did on Thursday, January 18, when the Supreme Court bench declared that henceforth, Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi shall have no audience before it. Since no timeline was indicated, the communication meant that Mr Abdullahi — nicknamed ‘Subreme Goat’ by Kenyans on social media — is barred from representing himself or his clients indefinitely. “It is the decision of this court,” the seven judges said in a letter signed by Supreme Court Registrar L.M. Wachira, “that henceforth and from the date of this communication, you shall have no audience before the Court, either by…
Unlike other Kenyans who are possessed by the evil spirit of opposing everything that the Government has been doing — or rather, has been pledging to do — I am driven largely by the fervour of patriotism, which has guided me to propose just one thing that the Sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen should do. Just early this week, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) gave Kenya 25 days within which to complete work on the stadiums expected to host the African Nations Championship (CHAN). CAF is the body that governs football in Africa and CHAN is the continental football showpiece…
It appears that Kenya’s Members of Parliament are collectively suffering from what mental health experts call “Amygdala hijack”. This is a serious mental condition that is characterised by intense and disproportionate emotional responses to situations. Every time this happens, the parts of the brain responsible for rational thinking and competent decision-making becomes crippled. An Amygdala hijack can impair the judgement of one person, but it can also afflict a group, such as Members of Parliament. In June, when mobs were descending on the National Assembly to protest the impending passage of the Finance Bill, 2024, MPs insisted on voting in…
The indignation demonstrated by some politicians, Cabinet Secretaries and busy bodies in the Kenya Kwanza administration about the admonition they received from Catholic bishops this week sadly demonstrates growing intolerance to alternative views. Governance, they have forgotten, is not about acknowledging only cheerleaders and ‘Yes’ men who do not have the guts to tell the political elite what it needs to hear; it is about cultivating the grace to receive, accept and act on feedback, even when it is delivered in unflattering terms. That is why it is important to remind those in positions of authority, who are now bristling…
Celebrated lawyer and judge Lee Gacuiga Muthoga has become the latest legal practitioner to release his memoir, Audacity And Sacrifice: My Life & Career. Published by Writers Guild Kenya in November, the book traces his life from his humble beginnings as a child growing up in a rural setting to becoming one of the judges in the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UN-ICTE) and later the United Nations Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (UN-MICT). “In this book, Lee enables us to see the embryonic days of his life and the twists and turns, beginning from under a…
