BY JOHN HARBERSON In mid-September, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) issued a report on the bearing of land issues on security in Kenya. It concluded that there is a close link between land injustices and ethnic violence in Kenya. The ISS report linked what it termed land-related injustices, unemployment, and gang activity. Indeed it drew on a 2012 survey by the National Crime Research Centre which reported the existence of 46 organized criminal gangs in the country. The ISS cited the report of the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission which detailed again the pervasiveness of land tenure injustice…
Author: NLM writer
BY OKWARO OSCAR PLATO Is the Senate a Chamber of retirees that failed to emasculate itself from the start? A cursory look the supremacy battle of “superior-inferior “ between the Senate and the National Assembly, one would easily agree with Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi who in his weekly column in the Sunday Nation argued that the Senate is not the upper legislative chamber that the Senators would wish it to be in the style of the United States Senate or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom and that realpower lies with the National Assembly.The roles of the Senate…
BY IAN RAMAS On February 11, 2013, three weeks to the elections, an assembly of key lawyers, human rights advocates and political scientists wrote to the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga drawing his attention to the indiscretions dogging the electoral process. They cited breach of election laws, lack of enforcement of regulations and serious allegations about the conduct of commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). “These concerns have a direct bearing on the conduct of free, fair and credible general elections beginning on March 4, 2013,” AFRICOG director Gladwell Otieno wrote on behalf of the independent group,…
BY TNLM The contract described by the High Court as “indiscriminate and clandestine” was faulty, if not deliberately drafted to favour Smith&Ouzman. It hugely underestimated the magnitude of the task. Based on simple arithmetic, IEBC required a minimum of 84 million ballot papers (14 million voters, six ballot papers each) for the first round of voting, yet the contract stated “15 million ballot papers” at the rate of Sh1.655 billion. “Contract is for the supply and delivery of fifteen million ballot papers and statutory result forms for the General Election to the Commission,” the contract, signed between IEBC and Ouzman…
BY TNLM In the case of BVR kits supply tender, IEBC was lethargic and tardy. While the process began on February 22, 2012, with the “invitation for bids”, IEBC had not awarded the tender by September 2012. Interestingly, despite complains that IEBC was time-strapped and the process running behind schedule, it took the tender evaluation committee 43 three days to submit its report (technical and financial evaluation). The deadline for submission of bids closed on March 26, 2012 yet the evaluation committee submitted its report on May 7, 2012. Based on the correspondence we have, it would appear the delay…
A well successful electoral process has to meet a series of standards: Conducive environment for a successful and democratic electoral process, managing elections competently and inspiring public confidence in the electoral process, settling electoral disputes efficiently and effectively, according to Research on the Implementation of the Report of the Independent Review Commission (Kriegler Commission) and Appropriate Recommendations for Advocating Adoption of Research Findings by Stakeholders, a report by Transparency International – Kenya Chapter.On paper, the IEBC was prepared, in terms of legislation and institutional structures. It was one of the strongest commissions, as regards resources and teeth. Yet by the…
BY DAVID DICOSTA Revelations from court proceedings in London where a British company is being sued for bribing Kenya’s electoral body officials to win ballot paper printing tenders do not come as a surprise to Kenyans. Save for the finer details of who played what role and got what in the upper echelons of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the “Chickengate” scandal only confirmed our worst fears: The Commission is a cash cow. It is a stepping-stone for individuals intent on enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers.The one institution, however, heavily exposed in the UK court is…
BY TIMAN MNYIKA Will the unity in the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) hold and survive the 2017 presidential race? This is the question many watchers of the opposition political scene are asking as the 2017 General Election approaches.In 2013, two of the so-called principals in Cord – Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka of Wiper and Moses Masika Wetang’ula of Ford Kenya – gave up their presidential ambitions in order to support ODM’s Raila Odinga. In the deal that brought them together, Kalonzo agreed to become Deputy President and Wetang’ula the Senate Majority Leader should their coalition win the elections. However,…
After nearly a month out of the country on what he described as ‘’personal issues’’, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka returned to find his party in disarray. Country representatives in Makueni had impeached Governor Kivutha Kibwana, himself not a Wiper man but his party, Muungano, is affiliated to Kalonzo’s Cord alliance. In Machakos, the row between Governor Alfred Mutua and his deputy Bernard Kiala and Senator Johnstone Muthama had escalated. Prof Kibwana’s impeachment was preceded by violent scenes outside the County Assembly where guns were used, wounding a number of leaders. This unprecedented violence saw his colleague in Kitui, Julius Malombe…
BY IAN RAMAS It wasn’t until a key conservationist took to her blog to grief Tim that Kenya, nay world, became aware of the oversize mammal in the country’s Amboseli. Nature lovers instantly recalled Ahmed, popularly known as King of Marsabit, who had symbolized the country’s faltering anti-poaching war of the 1970s. Despite the 24-hour surveillance decreed by the then President Jomo Kenyatta, Ahmed died at the hands of poachers in 1974, but not before it attracted plenty of benefit to bureaucrats and wildlife lobbyists. Even in death, it was a major attraction. Now, exactly 40 years after Ahmed’s death,…
