African companies, including airlines, financial institutions and telecoms operators are leading the charge for economic integration across Africa with a recent Boston Consulting Group report identifying 75 companies across 18 countries whose businesses are leading to further integration. The long-held dream of economic integration in Africa is becoming more of a reality—thanks a crop of companies defying high odds. Despite the obvious difficulties of being a pan-African business, economic integration across the continent is “gathering speed,” according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). “On average, the top 30 African companies now have operations in 16 African…
Author: NLM Editor
BY Tioko Ekiru Emmanuel In 1931, Carl Schmitt published an article, “The turn to the total state”. The total state that Schmitt describes is not yet a totalitarian state; rather it is one in which the traditional lines between the sphere – in which the private law society governs itself and the sphere of state intervention, or the public domain – have been undermined. According to Schmitt, the pluralistic forces of civil society have captured the State and made it an instrument to serve their purposes. Everything is up for grabs politically. It is a state of political mobilisation and…
Q&A with Prof Karuti Kanyinga When we promulgated the Constitution, it brought with it devolution, which, many thought, was the long-awaited Third Liberation. That experiment – in the eyes of some – is a flop – in terms of creating the Kenyan state. Do you agree? The Third Liberation is not a flop. Neither has the devolution experiment flopped. What we have had in the last eight years are challenges of implementation and not disillusionment with the Constitution. People in the former marginalised counties of northern Kenya, the coast and other regions of the country are getting unprecedented levels of services.…
By Kibe Mungai The spectacle, drama and fall-out surrounding the deportation and re-deportation of controversial lawyer Miguna Miguna in the wake of the swearing in of Raila Odinga as the people’s president left little doubt – if any was needed – that in high-voltage affairs of the State, the Jubilee government is determined to have its way whether the courts like it or not, and court orders notwithstanding. In less dramatic atmosphere, a similar scenario is playing out in the dispute concerning whether Justice Mohamed Warsame should be vetted by Parliament before his appointment as the elected representative of the…
Although Government has openl disdain for the Judiciary and shown its desire to exert control over it in what can be summed up as shadow boxing, the real war to muzzle the independence of third arm of government is being played from a distance and quietly. It is as tactful it is vicious. The nerve centre of the Judiciary is the JSC, not the CJ or individual judges. Government mandarins are fully aware of this and that is where they have launched dirty wars to wrestle judicial independence. It is a battle of numbers and government has been working round…
The Treasury, has been another avenue of the vicious war between the State and the Judiciary. The National Treasury, the behest of the Executive, has steadily reduced the budget of the Judiciary as part of a subtle play to keep the institution on a leash. For the last six years, parliament and the Executive have continuously slashed the budget of the Judiciary with a view to crippling it completely. For the financial year 2018/2019, Treasury CS Henry Rotich was given instructions to reduce the Judiciary budget to the pre-2010/2011 level, and “provide salaries and recurrent expenditure only”. For a country…
BY NLM writer In apartheid South Africa, Parliament was sovereign. Judges had no authority to review or overturn parliamentary decisions – no matter how morally reprehensible or legally decadent they were. In short, says law professor Penelope Andrews of the University of Cape Town, public power under apartheid was not subject to review by the courts. But this ended with the enactment of the post-apartheid constitution that made judges the final arbiters in exercise of all public power. The courts have been a significant shield and bulwark for South Africa’s constitutional democracy since then. “Through their creative and courageous decision-making,…
By Antony Mutunga Because most of African countries were colonised, they are bound to their colonial masters. As a result, development is tied to the extent the masters allow. Many of the continent relies on the international trade more than it trades with itself. According to the African Economic Outlook 2017, the European Union remained the continent’s largest trading partner with 30% of trade in 2015 while intra-African trade stood at 15%. However, this has started to change as Africans realise that trading more with each other they can break them free of these bonds, to enable them realise their…
BY Payton Mathau Controversy of the ownership of ninety-seven acres of land in Ruaraka for which a businessman has been compensated is as confusing as its history. While one indenture document indicates that the land, which retains its original number, L.R. No.7978/4, was purchased by Afrison Imports Exports and Huelands Ltd from Joreth Limited on December 29, 1981. Another transaction dated November 30, 1982 is purported to have been conducted between Edward Whittaker and Afrison Imports Exports Limited. “This indenture is made the 29th day of December One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty One between Joreth Limited, a liability company…
By Emeka-Mayaka Gekara Had he not studied law, attorney-general Paul Kihara Kariuki would probably have ended up as an actor, and would likely be a frequent show at the Kenya National Theatre or Alliance Française. He was a decent thespian during his college days. In fact, as he told the House committee vetting him for his new job, he met his wife – Sarah – while playing the role of sheep on stage. Son to one of the pioneer African Anglican bishops, Kariuki could have also ended up as a man of the collar – and here, his oratory skills…