Author: NLM Editor

Have you recently carried heavy shopping bags up a few flights of stairs? Or run the last 100 meters to the station to catch your train? If you have, you may have unknowingly been doing a style of exercise called high-intensity incidental physical activity. Our paper, published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, shows this type of regular, incidental activity that gets you huffing and puffing is likely to produce health benefits, even if you do it in 30-second bursts, spread over the day. In fact, incorporating more high-intensity activity into our daily routines—whether that’s by vacuuming the…

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By Dr Tom Odhiambo Donald Trump is a man one can’t just wish away. If you like him, he can easily become a cult that will swallow your whole life. His bullishness can be reassuring in a confusing world. If you dislike – not hate, mind – him, he could still eat away your soul as well. His scaremongering can make one’s life hellish. But the appeal of Donald Trump isn’t Trump the man; it is Trump the drama. This is a man who has made much of the world that follows American politics to realize that actually Americans aren’t…

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Standard of proof The burden of proof lies on the prosecution to establish the existence of compelling reasons that would justify the denial of bail, or the imposition of suitable bail terms and conditions. Some courts have required the prosecution to present “cogent, very strong and specific evidence” in order to justify the denial of bail. Mere allegations or suspicion will not be sufficient. According to these courts, where the prosecution opposes bail, it must support its objection with cogent reasons and facts, and it is not enough to “make bare objections and insinuations.” The question becomes, should the prosecution…

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By Shadrack Muyesu On February 8 2018, the Chief Magistrate’s Court at Kiambu delivered a ruling in R vs Michael Ngobe Mugo, Traffic Case No 464 of 2018, in which it stated, inter alia, that driving under the influence of alcohol per se does not amount to an offence. The Court interpreted Section 44 of the Traffic Act to mean that for the offence to be established, the judicial forum must be certain that the driver was under the influence of drink or a drug, and that as a result of the drink or drug s/he was incapable of having…

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The late, great Justice Antonin Scalia once remarked, “The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge.” The principle underlying this axiom is lost on many, who instead render it the other way: judges must automatically like the results they reach, because they reach the results they like. From there, politicians and pundits take it one step further, decrying any court ruling that deviates from their preferred policy outcomes as simply the result of jurists’ partisan bias. This hackneyed logic erodes the courts’ reputation as nonpartisan arbiters of the law. But it also has the more dangerous…

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By Antony Mutunga When the World Wide Web went live in 1991, only a handful of people knew what it was. Fewer still cared for it. And then everything changed. As people realized the revolutionary nature of the Internet, many boarded that ship. For proper perspective, in 1981 there were only 213 computers logged on but three years later in 1985, there were 16 million people online. Today, there are billions. This exponential expansion can be attributed to the emergence of support technologies such as email and web browsers, as well as the activities of companies like Amazon in 1998,…

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Social media tax robs Uganda of Internet, mobile money revenue Uganda’s social media tax has proved to be detrimental to both its internet and mobile money sectors. In the three months following the introduction of the levy in July 2018, there was a noted decline in the number of internet users, total revenues collected, as well as mobile money transactions. In a series of tweets, the Uganda Communications Commission noted internet subscription declined by more than 2.5 million users, while the sum of taxpayers from over-the-top (OTT) media services decreased by more than 1.2 million users. The value of mobile…

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Talamus Health Inc., an Africa focused health-tech business, has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2019. The list honours the businesses making the most profound impact on both industry and culture, showcasing a variety of ways to thrive in today’s volatile world. Half of the companies on this year’s MIC 50 list are appearing for the first time. Commenting on the recognition, Talamus founder Dr Muri Raifu said “…being recognized for our innovative approach to healthcare is a great endorsement of our approach to solving healthcare challenges on the African continent.…

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At the end of 2018, everything was set for a local consultancy firm to work on a research project with the government of Lagos, Africa’s largest city. All the details had been agreed with the contract due to be signed, but it eventually didn’t materialize. Within weeks, the state’s governor lost his party’s primary elections so was no longer running for re-election and he soon “lost interest” in the project. With a new governor set to be voted in after Nigeria’s local state elections in two weeks, it’s unclear whether or not talks to sign the contract will ever resume.…

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By Bosire Chrispin ‘The need to find the right balance between competing rights and competing interests is fundamental in all States.’ Law seeks to reconcile conflicting interests by securing the most and sacrificing the least. A balance – ‘eliminating friction and precluding waste in human enjoyment of the goods of existence’ – ought to be struck. This balance would be viewed as ‘social engineering.’ Proper, well-adjusted development of a country depends on the ability of government to balance the competing interests of security and human rights. ‘Kituo cha Sheria & 8 others v Attorney General’ restated reasonableness and proportionality of…

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