New momentum is clearly needed if democracy’s decline in Africa and across the globe is to be reversed By Prof John Harbeson Afrobarometer has recently released a comprehensive 2021 survey of African political opinion in more than thirty countries, its eighth since its founding in 1999. With Kenya conducting its seventh national elections in its post-Cold War democratic era this month, it is a timely occasion, with the benefit of these as well as Freedom House data, to query the status of Kenyan democracy. It is useful also to discern how Kenyans’ experience has compared to that of citizens of…
Author: NLM writer
Violent extremism, drought and armed conflicts are some of the challenges that require urgent attention. “In the past two years alone, the region has experienced a desert locust invasion, a crushing drought that is still ongoing, numerous threats related to violent extremism, armed conflicts and, like the rest of the world, the region has not been spared from the Covid-19 pandemic,” said President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was speaking 9th Extraordinary Assembly of the IGAD Heads of State and Government in July. “Further, the drought, the worst in 40 years, has intensified food insecurity, dried up water sources and forced displacement…
The Independent Medico-Legal Unit wants the immediate suspension and investigation of the newly promoted Nakuru County Commander Peter Mwanzo over the recent execution of four men in Nakuru as the government intensifies its crackdown on criminal gangs. Following the killing, Mwanzo says that the four were part of the “Confirm” gang that had been earmarked earlier by security agencies and blamed for a spate of violent crimes including the murder of various people, mostly women, in Nakuru. The lobby wants Mwanzo to be brought to justice over what it termed his “responsibility in these executions including the ones that have…
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji says that there is no evidence linking Deputy President William Ruto to the Arror and Kimwarer. Haji, who spoke during a morning show last month, said that the Kimwarer case file from investigative agencies also doesn’t include DP Ruto’s name. Haji however noted that the ODPP has been pursuing the Kimwarer case to see it to its conclusion. “As far as I am concerned and from where I am sitting, there is no evidence against him, and the file in court does not have his name, and that does not mean I am…
Deputy president William Ruto will publish government contracts with China and deport Chinese nationals working illegally if he is elected on August 9, promises likely to resonate with citizens pummelled by mounting debt and the skyrocketing cost of living. Kenya, whose 2022/23 budget of Sh3.3 trillion shillings has a deficit of 6.2% of gross domestic product, owes China about Sh1.04 trillion. Ruto has promised to slash the government borrowing that has funded President Uhuru Kenyatta’s infrastructure building spree. The contracts are not public and some Kenyan organisations have lodged court cases to try to force full disclosure of the deals.…
In a judgment handed down in June, the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, delivered a reparations judgment in the final act of a long running case. The Court unanimously rejected the Government of Kenya’s objections and ordered Kenya to title Ogiek ancestral lands in Mau Forest. The historic ruling on reparations follows a landmark judgment delivered by the Court on 26 May 2017, finding that the Government of Kenya had violated the right to life, property, natural resources, development, religion and culture of the Ogiek, under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. “This judgment…
Life is no longer at ease for public officers who have accumulated wealth beyond the scope of their known legitimate sources as the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) intensifies investigations, tracing and recovery of corruptly acquired assets. Extending the string of its recent asset tracking and recovery cases, the Commission has moved to court to recover Sh25 million from a company associated with an employee of Turkana County Government that was paid millions of shillings for goods that it did not deliver. Esther Lokai Elim, a director of Amailo Investment Company Ltd, is an accountant at the county and has…
with Prof John Harbeson Afrobarometer recently released a comprehensive 2021 survey of African opinion in more than thirty countries, its eighth since its founding in 1999. With Kenya about to conduct the seventh national elections in its post-Cold War democratic era, it is timely occasion to query the status of Kenyan democracy including how Kenyans appraise democracy vis-à-vis citizens of other African countries. As centrally important as elections are to the quality of democracy, equally important is the larger matter of the bearing of democracy on the political health of the state itself. In an African continent of chronically fragile…
Despite what the Constitution says, Kenya’s presidency is imperial. We have concentrated untrammelled power in the presidency, making it the most coveted office in the land. This is an African thing – we love the cult of the Big Man, the Bwana Mkubwa, the Mtukufu Rais. Africans do not like their presidents powerless and symbolic. We generally do not like small things – everything we want is generally big and out there, and that includes our political leaders. We see stepping back from anything as a loss, as cowardly and unbecoming – which is why it is so difficult for…
By Dave Anyona Kanundu After many cycles of betrayed hopes, Kenya votes again this month. Neither frontrunner promises a leftward break, but their visions differ vastly. The upcoming Kenyan elections on 9 August will mark a turning point in the nation’s future and could be the country’s most consequential poll to date. The presidential contest election is effectively a two-horse race between Deputy President William Ruto and veteran politician Raila Odinga. Neither is proposing a paradigm-shifting leftward break with Kenya’s current neoliberal and neo-patrimonial character. Nevertheless, their agendas are starkly different and each would irreversibly change the country’s trajectory. Ruto…
