BY TNLM REPORTER Expired leases are the new goldmines in Kenya. With powerful contacts at the Ministry of Land at Ardhi House, the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission and at CID HQ on Kiambu Road, one can make hundreds of millions within a very short period. The plan is fairly simple: Forge documents, create new deed plan, get a new title and you are a millionaire. This is exactly what happened to the very building that houses the EACC, popularly known as Integrity Centre. And the question Kenyans are asking is: If individuals can attempt to grab the Integrity…
Author: NLM writer
BY KEVIN MOTAROKI The past month has been as dramatic as it has been revealing and shocking. It began with EACC chair Mumo Matemu suspending deputy CEO Michael Mubea, which was swiftly reversed by the CEO, Halakhe Waqo the following day. Bribery, witch-hunting, nepotism and tender deals, it has emerged, sit at the centre of the current wars at EACC. As if that were the signal, every manner of accusation started flying, first against the chairman and other commissioners by the secretariat, and then against the CEO and his deputy by commissioners. The Office of the President, through spokesman Manoah…
BY BEVERLINE ONGARO The administration of bail and bond by courts and police officers is a crucial procedure in the Kenyan criminal justice system. At the fulcrum of bail and bond administration is the need to balance adherence to the Constitutional right of an arrested or accused person to bail, the rights of the victims of crimes and the public interest for safety by keeping away persons deemed to be a threat to safety via denying them bail. But attaining a balance of these rights and interests has been challenging when one considers the general administration of bail and…
BY JARED JUMA Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law. As a body of law, it deals with the decision-making of administrative units of government – tribunals, boards or commissions, for example – that are part of a national regulatory scheme in such areas as police law, international trade, manufacturing, and disciplinary processes the environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration and transport. Administrative law expanded greatly during the 12th Century, as legislative bodies worldwide created more government agencies to regulate the increasingly complex social, economic and political spheres of human interaction. While administrative decision-making bodies are often controlled…
BY HERMAN OMITI On February 20, 2015, the Law Society of Kenya indicated through a newspaper report (Daily Nation, P.15) that it had sought information from the Capital Markets Authority regarding undercutting by Advocates. The LSK reported that some of the areas majorly affected by undercutting included bonds, rights issues, IPOs, mergers, banks and also government offices. According to the LSK, the information sought should lead to the arrest and prosecution of the lawyers involved in the “malpractice.” The society indicated that there have been numerous complaints on the matter, prompting them to take action. In what would be…
BY Michael Duncan A report by the World Bank has faulted government for failing to ensure that local consumers fully benefit from the drop in international oil prices experienced during the second half of last year to February. Consequently, the global lender has warned that this could lead to a surge in inflation as the cost of most factors of production that use oil as an input will remain unchanged, thus affecting the price of manufactured goods. The World Bank criticised the trend in local oil prices in its latest issue of the Kenya Economic Update report that was released last month.…
BY JAMES MULIRO Kenya’s earnings from manufactured goods sold in foreign markets dropped by Sh10 billion in 2014, even as the declining competitiveness of the country’s industrial sector continues to raise eyebrows. According to the Monthly Economic Review (MER) released last month by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the value of manufactured goods that Kenya sold in the export market declined by 16 per cent to Sh54 billion ($592 million), a five-year low. In 2013, the country earned Sh64 billion ($705 million) from exporting manufactured products, most of which were sold in the East African market, Kenya’s largest trading…
BY James Muliro Nairobi has been rated as the most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, a new report indicates. The report “Into Africa: The Continent’s Cities of Opportunity” by financial advisory firm, PwC says Nairobi has outperformed 20 major cities in Africa – including Johannesburg, Addis Ababa and Lagos – in terms of its attractiveness to FDIs. “Kigali finishes at the very top for both ease of doing business and health spending, Abidjan ranks number one in both middle-class growth and diversity, Dar es Salaam is first in GDP growth, and Nairobi outscores all African cities…
Many of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. The continent’s future appears to be bright, but do growth figures reflect an improving quality of life? It is a story that is being told with increasing frequency. Against the backdrop of a prolonged slump that has brought financial paralysis to much of the Western world, experts have identified Africa as having many of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Some point to the fact that high growth rates should be viewed in context, since African economies – mostly relatively small – are expanding from a low base, making improvements…
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is eying reaching a single day settlement for trades in equities, a move aimed at boosting liquidity on the stock market. According to the Exchange’s chief executive officer, Geoffrey Odundo, a reduction in the number of days it takes to settle transactions is key to enhancing the level of liquidity on the market, hence attracting more investors. In an interview last month, Odundo said higher levels of liquidity will be achieved by reducing the trading and settlement cycle, increasing the number of products on offer and improving efficiency of trading systems. At the moment, the…
