Flip-flopping interests and selfish, deal-cutting regional leaders determined to monopolise power: only a credible, non-partisan electoral body can deliver a fair election in Somalia. Elections in Somalia are underway, but for the umpteenth time, leaders of Federal Member States with hidden agendas have proven to be major stumbling blocks. The election has been characterized by uncertainty, treachery, inflated costs, and corruption. The Senate election has already begun, and the voting for the Lower House will take place in the next few days. Regrettably, new procedures imposed by Federal Member state leaders have spooked aspirants who have lost faith in a…
Author: NLM Team
By NLM Writer When the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) floated the tender for Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVOC) of used motor vehicles and motor vehicle spare parts on January 19, 2021, among the entities that collected tender documents was Five Blocks Enterprises. Curiously, Five Blocks did not return the documents as a bidder. But, in the ongoing tender process, Five Blocks, through its sole director Dr Charles Nzai, an Environmental and Natural Resource Economist at Kenyatta University, would be at the centre of the tendering. The tender has turned into a classic case of dirty tricks being employed to…
The Kenya Bureau of Standards is implicated in a long-running saga for turning a blind eye to anti-competitive business practices by QISJ. By NLM Writer Cited and blacklisted for poor inspection of radioactive substances in used vehicles, facing conflict of interest queries and questions about its capacity and professionalism, one would have expected that Japanese used motor vehicle inspection firm, Quality Inspection Services Japan (QISJ), would be long gone from the Kenyan market. But no. In fact, despite all the accusations against QISJ, including evidence of having sponsored auditors to discredit rivals, QISJ carries on like nothing could be wrong,…
By Austin Ekesa In December 2020, I wrote an article in this magazine titled, “CJ Maraga: As profound as he was polarizing.” In it, I explained how Maraga’s judgements on constitutional matters, while groundbreaking, posed serious political ramifications. I also defended the former CJ from his critics who continuously deposed that he was unprepared for the jurisprudential rigour expected of an apex court justice, riding on the fact that Maraga did not “care” about the oncoming ramifications of his judicial pronouncements on the country and was therefore “weak”. In my defense of the former CJ, I pointed out that he…
By Antony Mutunga The coronavirus pandemic has not only shown the world how woefully unprepared we are in managing epidemics, but also the importance of digital technologies. Even though it has taken us a pandemic of global proportions to realize that digital technologies are necessary, they were already on the ascendancy before COVID, particularly in the developing world. For instance, Kenya’s journey with digital services has been advancing since the introduction of mobile money in 2007. As a result, many Kenyans have become used to the digital services and the advantages they bring. According to Omidyar Network and Dalberg’s Kenya’s…
With the rapid urban growth in Africa, the continent is positioning itself as a hub for smart cities. Africa’s urban population has been growing at a high rate, from about 27 percent in 1950 to 40 percent in 2015 and projected to reach 60 percent by 2050 according to UN-DESA -2014. As a result, many Africans have moved to urban centres to enhance their productivity and living standards and by 2019, 40.71 % of Sub-Saharan Africa’s total population lived in urban areas and cities. With the rapid urban growth in Africa, the continent is positioning itself as a hub for smart cities, with ambitious plans like…
By Prof John Harbeson Kenya’s democratic Constitution reached its tenth birthday a year ago, the outcome of more than three decades of arduous effort by civil society, with strong international encouragement and support. It was widely regarded at the time and since as a model constitution, notably for the comprehensive array of personal liberties it enshrined. As Kenyans well know, the Constitution has remained aspirational to a significant extent since, ten years on, it has remained incompletely implemented, while aspirations to enact refining amendments have also been numerous. Democracy promoting and measuring institutions led by Freedom House have decried a…
By Frankline Mbogori On December 14th 2017, the Supreme Court of Kenya delivered a landmark judgment pronouncing the mandatory nature of the death penalty unconstitutional. In Francis Karioko Muruatetu & another v Republic [2017] eKLR (Muruatetu) the issue before the court was whether Section 204 of the Penal Code, which decrees a mandatory death penalty for the offence of murder, offended the 2010 Constitution. The petitioners raised weighty constitutional questions which may be summarized as follows: Firstly, that the mandatory nature of the death penalty under Section 204 of the Penal Code takes away judicial discretion and replaces it with…
By Antony Mutunga Since COVID hit, cyber criminals and hackers have been more active than ever and even though in the past, Africa was not necessarily considered a focus area by these criminals as compared to places like North America and Europe. Today, the continent is at risk of sophisticated types of cybercriminal activity such as targeted attacks or advanced persistent threats. In fact, according to Kaspersky, in the first half of 2021, the African region was comparable to that of North America or Europe in terms of cyberattacks. According to Kaspersky’s research, in 2020, on a global level, approximately…
Prof John Harbeson Ethiopia’s very existence as it has been known for more than a century may well be at stake most immediately because of the civil war in its Tigray region between the central government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). At this writing, by unilaterally declaring a ceasefire at the behest of its interim administration in Tigray, conditionally accepted by the TPLF, the Ethiopian government has appeared tacitly to concede that it has been unable to defeat the TPLF’s Defense Forces (TDF), after an eight-month campaign. Not clear at this writing is…
