BY MAORE ITHULA In Kenya, terror threats have reduced all places where we gather to get services or buy goods into potential scenes of mass murder. Thus in Nairobi, stingy people can no longer meet their elected leaders freely near and around the two Parliaments. Nor are motorists allowed to use the streets neighbouring the August Houses or State House. Gone are days when university and college students could enjoy the mischief of their youth unhindered. Even the lackadaisical Kenyan hawker has lost steam. Today, even the mobile trader is not bold enough to confront any luggage-carrying persons approaching bus…
Author: NLM writer
BY HEDWIG MATANO The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) could be headed for a major split following a vicious power struggle between the three principals, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula. At the centre of the rift is the fight for the coalition’s presidential ticket ahead of the 2017 General Election. Insiders paint a bleak scenario with each of the three principals determined to be on the ballot in 2017, coalition or no coalition. The lack of structures within the coalition has ensured that no organised nomination process can take place to determine who the next presidential candidate…
By Ndung’u Wainaina This is the first of a two-part series tracing key developments in Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) of Kenya since its establishment as an independent entity following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. Part Two will look into progress and what impact it has had, while this first instalment attempts to address itself to what benchmarks were set to fully operationalise the ODPP. Before the enactment of the new Constitution of Kenya, 2010, all public prosecutions in Kenya were conducted under the auspices of the Attorney-General’s (AG) office. In particular, the…
By Kenyatta Otieno Some time back, political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi made an illustration that has stuck with me. He noted that the Moi regime, made up predominantly of the Kalenjin, governed in a pastoralist manner while the Kibaki regime, comprising of his Kikuyu henchmen, was governing like agriculturalists, in relation to corruption. As a Kikuyu married to a Kalenjin, Mutahi Ngunyi seems to have coined this with the benefit of insider information. According to Ngunyi, the Moi regime was an open-field grazing land where outsiders could stray in, make a kill and move on. On the contrary, the Kibaki…
BY DR WILLY MUTUNGA Devolution has been built into our Constitution as a necessary mitigation against 50 years of centralised government which yielded poverty, inequality, division and underdevelopment. Devolution is extremely important to the survival of Kenya as a nation-state, and the Judiciary is duty-bound to support it in fulfilment of the express commands of Article 10 of the Constitution. Devolution will not work if we create institutional apartheid between the national government and county governments. Although the Constitution allocates functions to the national and county governments in the Fourth Schedule, the self-same supreme law provides for collaboration. Indeed Article…
Kenya and Uganda are on a list of 29 African countries that face severe food shortage and insecurity, a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation shows. However, unlike other countries, the food insecurity situation in the two East African counties is localised. In other words, it is restricted to specific areas due to various factors including an influx of refugees, a concentration of internally displaced persons, or a combination of crop failure and acute poverty. The situation in Kenya, which has about 1.5 million people mainly in north-eastern pastoral areas staring at severe malnutrition and possible death, is…
Senegal’s President Macky Sall said on Tuesday he would hold a referendum next year to reduce the presidential term to five years from seven, seeking to “set an example” at a time when some African leaders want to increase their term limits. Sall declined to say whether he would seek a second term in his West African country, regarded as a bastion of democracy in a turbulent region, though he is widely expected to do so. Sall pledged during his 2012 campaign that he would cut the presidential term in Senegal to bring it into line with regional norms after…
The Nairobi County government last month unveiled an ambitious plan to address perennial traffic jams in the city, which involve construction of new roads and the phasing out of a number of roundabouts. The plan, to be jointly undertaken by the central and county governments, is pegged on a memorandum of understanding signed in October last year by the Transport ministry with several counties for cooperation, with a view to easing transport in the larger Nairobi Metropolitan area. “We are alive to the fact that congestion situation in Nairobi requires immediate action, but we are also aware that a one-off…
BY JARED JUMA This National Assembly, the entire component of it, both leadership and membership, is a disgrace. The levels of mediocrity oozing from within its premises, including from the floor of the House and from within its various committees is, to say the least, confounding – from wheeler dealing to outright soliciting for bribes to sexual impropriety. For purposes of clarity, let us today just focus on the accelerated corruption especially as manifested in the very important committees of the National Assembly, and skip the philandering escapades of the honourable Members that most of the time border on…
By John Harbeson Freedom House has reported a modest but discernible decline in democracy around the world every year for the past decade. For forty-three years, Freedom House, based in New York City and Washington, DC, has acted as an independent watchdog, monitoring the extent and quality of essential democratic practices in nearly every country, relying upon on site analysts and country and regional specialists. With a quarter of the countries included in Freedom House surveys, sub-Saharan Africa influences significantly Freedom House overall findings. The persistent if generally gradual erosion of democratic practices around the world that Freedom House…
