The hiring of 46,000 intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms is set to be suspended indefinitely because the budget for their employment was contained in the Finance Bill, 2024, which has now been rejected. A source at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has told the Nairobi Law Monthly that unless the intern teachers are hired by Friday, June 28, then their contracts will automatically expire when the current financial year ends on Sunday, June 30. The teachers, who handle Junior Secondary School (JSS) Grades Seven and Eight in 32,469 public primary schools, were to be hired as soon as…
Author: Mbugua Ng’ang’a
Today is a tipping point in the history of Kenya’s political economy. On the one hand, we have a National Assembly that must make the final call on the Finance Bill, the one document that has united Kenyans — and particularly stirred the youthful generation — in their quest to oppose it. There is a likelihood that the controversial Bill — which spells out the government’s tax and spend measures for the next financial year — will sail through with a slight majority amid huge acrimony on the floor of the august House. And outside the National Assembly, angry protesters…
Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi on Tuesday, June 18, to protest over punitive tax proposals that they said would erode disposable incomes and adversely affect the quality of their lives. Among the contentious provisions in the Finance Bill — which will be debated in the National Assembly on Wednesday, June 19 — is one requiring motor vehicle owners to pay a 2.5 per cent tax on the insurance value of their vehicles. The insurance industry players, together with motorists, opposed the proposal, saying it would erode insurance penetration and make it uneconomical to own a motor vehicle. Another…
Malawi Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima, whose plane went missing on Monday, June 10, is dead. Chilima’s death comes barely a month after a court acquitted him of corruption-related charges, effectively clearing him to vie for the presidency in elections slated for next year. Also expected to run in the election is former President Peter Mutharika. The two would have faced off with President Lazarus Chakwera, who will be seeking a second term. VP Chilima, who was in the company of nine other State and military officials, died when the military aircraft they were travelling in from Lilongwe crashed in Chikangawa…
A new directive prohibiting Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies from carrying over pending bills related to pay and allowances to the next financial year could be the reason the Office of Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta has come out fighting to demand the release of Sh1.1 billion by the Treasury. A source close to The Nairobi Law Monthly on Tuesday, June 11, said that the Government had directed all public agencies to pay their outstanding staff emoluments and perks by end of June 30 or else the affected officers would lose the money. The Government has been racing to reduce pending…
Kenya’s oldest political party, Kanu, has suffered a major setback after its attempt to reclaim ownership of the iconic Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) was thrown out by the Environment and Land Court sitting in Nairobi. KICC’s ownership changed hands — from Kanu to the Government — in 2003 soon after the then President, Mwai Kibaki, took over power and issued an Executive Order quashing the former ruling party’s ownership of the property in the heart of the capital city, Nairobi, and which is also the centrepiece of Kenya’s conference tourism. The Executive Order was executed by the then minister…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu risks being arrested if the International Criminal Court (ICC) accepts an application that Mr Karim Khan, its prosecutor, has filed. “On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023,” Mr Khan said on Monday, May 20, in an application before the Pre-Trial…
Kenya’s balance of trade continued on a negative trajectory in 2023 with the 2024 Economic Survey Report showing that the country imported goods worth Sh2.6 trillion but only exported goods worth Sh1.0 trillion. Whereas exports showed a robust growth of 15.4 per cent compared to 2022, it was still weighed down by a 4.9 per cent increase in the value of imports. The only saving grace was that the balance of trade narrowed from a deficit of Sh1.62 trillion in 2022 to Sh1.60 trillion last year. During the same period, the export-import cover — which ranges between three and four…
President William Ruto has said the Executive is committed to supporting the Judiciary so that it can serve Kenyans better. Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for 20 new High Court judges at State House, Nairobi, the President said an effective and efficient Judiciary was good for Kenya because the country’s economy and security, as well as the citizens’ rights and freedoms depend on the Judiciary. “We shall make our contribution to enhance the capacity of the Judiciary to deliver justice in every part of Kenya,” said President Ruto.In the Budget expected to be presented to Parliament in June, 2024, the…
Willem Alexandar Hondius, a guru of the low budget airlines business and founding CEO of Jambojet, has died after battling illness in his home in the Netherlands.
