By John Mukum Mbaku Kenya has new rules for choosing the people who run its elections. President William Ruto has signed into law the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (Amendment) Bill. It changes the composition of the panel that selects people to serve on the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The commission is a state institution that has the task of enhancing and supporting constitutional democracy in Kenya. It conducts elections, registers citizens as voters and maintains the voters’ roll. It also fixes the boundaries of electoral constituencies and wards. It settles electoral disputes, registers candidates for election and conducts voter education.…
Author: NLM Team
Political and ideological polarization stand in the way of constitutional amendments By Silas Apollo Any administration, upon gaining power, must come up with a new set of rules to help drive its campaign promises, and help it deliver on its mandate; the Kenya Kwanza administration is currently in the phase of crystallizing these rules. Over the last couple of months, President William Ruto has already called for Constitutional amendments, a move he says will enrich the country’s democratic process and improve service delivery. The President, in his proposal, wants the creation of the office of the official leader of opposition,…
By Antony Mutunga Africa is on course to build its first spaceport following a partnership between Djibouti and the Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group (HKATG) to build a facility to launch satellites and rockets. The orbital spaceport project, which is valued at $1 billion, will be built in the northern Obock region. In the preliminary deal, was presided over by President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, said his government will provide the necessary land (minimum 10 sq. km and with a term of not less than 35 years) and all ‘necessary assistance’ to build and operate the Djiboutian Spaceport. According…
By Antony Mutunga Electricity is in high demand, with businesses finally operating at full capacity after the slowdown during the pandemic. The demand hit a new high in January 2023. According to data from Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), electricity demand peaked during the third week of January at 2132.29 megawatts. Samson Mwathethe, KenGen chairman, believes this is due to the recovery from the pandemic. “We have recorded an increase in the demand for electricity in Kenya, which continues to grow, driven by the high business activity as the country recovers from the effects of Covid-19,” he said. This comes…
By Tirana Hassan The obvious conclusion to draw from the litany of human rights crises in 2022— from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deliberate attacks on civilians in Ukraine and Xi Jinping’s open-air prison for the Uyghurs in China to the Taliban’s putting millions of Afghans at risk of starvation —is that unchecked authoritarian power leaves behind a sea of human suffering. But 2022 also revealed a fundamental shift in power in the world that opens the way for all concerned governments to push back against these abuses by protecting and strengthening the global human rights system, especially when the actions…
The High Court has overruled the planned merger of pension schemes that were meant to streamline the county governments’ staff pension services due to an oversight by the government in the legislative process. While quashing the County Governments Retirement Scheme Act, 2019, Justice Maureen Onyango stated that the new law was illegally enacted. Justice Onyango ruled that there was no public participation and that Parliament failed to involve key stakeholders such as employees and pensioners during the legislative process in 2018. The Court established that the committee before which the public participation meeting was held was improperly constituted as it did not have quorum as…
Another 1.9 million babies were tragically stillborn during the same period, according to a separate UN report. An estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021, according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). In a separate report also released today, the group found that 1.9 million babies were stillborn during the same period. Tragically, many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, child and adolescent…
A court in Uganda on Tuesday quashed a section of a communications law that has been used to prosecute government critics, journalists and writers, including two who fled to exile in Germany. Under Uganda’s Computer Misuse Act, one of the sections proscribes the use of electronic communication to “disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication”. Punishments for offenders can range from steep cash penalties to jail sentences of several years. In a ruling on a petition filed by a rights activist seeking the quashing of that section of the law,…
Kenya Airways has been experiencing flight disruptions due to delays in securing aircraft components required for maintenance. The airline, which is one of Africa’s biggest, and already digged by perennial losses, may be forced to cut some flights if the challenges of getting the parts persist, its Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka has said. “The challenges have been occasioned by the Ukraine war crisis, which has significantly crippled the Russian supply chain crucial to global aviation,” Kivaluka said. Kivaluka cited titanium from Russia as one of the key raw materials used by the aviation industry, and is crucial to the maintenance…
Yellow Card Financial, an African-based cryptocurrency exchange, recently launched its revolutionary new payment feature Yellow Pay in August last year. Less than six months later, the company has officially announced that the feature is now available across Africa. The payment feature allows customers to send and receive money through the Yellow Card crypto exchange platform, without any extra charges and instantly through their phones. This is especially an added advantage to those wishing to do so cross border. Previously, it would cost more to send money between African countries than it would to some overseas countries. With the lack of…
