Author: NLM Editor

antony mutunga Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of the people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance. – John F. Kennedy Africa has come a long way from the days that the continent was known as the hopeless continent because of its tragedies such as floods, famine, civil unrest and war, disease and deep poverty. However, ever since the start of the 21st century things have turned around for the continent as it has experienced a robust economic growth. For instance, according to McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), between 2000 and…

NLM Writer “Cynics have a price for everything yet understand the value of nothing” On average, a human adult consumes 40 litres of water in a day: 3 litres as drinking water, 20 for his bath and whatever remains for his meals and other sanitary needs. A 20-litre gallon of water goes for some Sh30 locally. Sh20 though isn’t enough to buy one a litter of clean bottled drinking water. As a result, many have resorted to boiling drinking water or, better yet, using purifying agents. Many still have simply resigned themselves to fate. They buy from the vendor and…

Shadrack Muyesu National budget is defined by two things – lavish figures, which are usually an improvement from the previous financial year, and deficit. It’s almost cultural for government to spend way more that she earns in GDP. Its trite practice too for the deficit to increase when all expenditure, including supplementary allocations, has been factored in. This financial year kicks off with a 7.2% deficit. With a looming expansion of the Executive and ongoing industrial action to push for higher salaries, the signs are that it won’t be any different. And not that it’s a bad thing. In fact…

Edwin Musonye Diaspora remittances are an essential financial input in many developing countries.  Kenya in particular, greatly values the conception. Processes are thus in place to capture data of the inflows. In further backing, national efforts supporting citizens to go work abroad are evident. This determination is popular because it seems to solve two shortcomings in a single blow. One is unemployment, which remains is at a high of 40 per cent – which is eased when job seekers find placement abroad – and, two , and perhaps more importantly, bonus funds, which are obtained and pumped into the ever…

NLM Writer Just three months after he was sworn into office for his first term, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed a task force whose principal recommendation was the merger of State agencies. It was among the first policy initiatives by President Kenyatta after his election in March 2013. Membership of the Presidential Taskforce on Parastatal Reforms (PTPR) was drawn from both the public and private sector with Senior Advisor on Constitutional and Legislative Affairs in the Office of the President, Abdikadir Mohamed, and Group Managing Director Commercial Bank of Africa, Isaac Awuondo, as co-chairs. Other members of the task force include…

“A FOOL’S bargain.” That is how Idriss Déby, Chad’s president, now describes the state oil company’s decision to borrow $1.4bn (Sh140 billion) from Glencore, an Anglo- Swiss commodities trader, in 2014. The loan was to be repaid with future sales of crude, then trading above $100 (Sh10,000) a barrel. But two years later, as the price dived, debt payments were swallowing 85% of Chad’s dwindling oil revenue. For weeks schools have been closed and hospitals paralysed, as workers strike against austerity. On February 21st, after fractious talks, Chad and Glencore agreed to restructure the deal. Chad’s woes recall an earlier…

“We feel so hungry,” says Agatha Khasiala, a Kenyan housekeeper, grumbling about the price of meat and fish. She has recently moved in with her daughter because “the cost of everything is very high”. The data back her up. The World Bank publishes rough estimates of price levels in different countries, showing how far a dollar would stretch if converted into local currency. On this measure, Kenya is more expensive than Poland. This is surprising. The cost of living is generally higher in richer places, a phenomenon best explained by the economists Bela Balassa and Paul Samuelson. They distinguished between…

With their meeting last month, Kenya’s political arch rivals have been hailed for calming ethnic tensions in East Africa’s most vibrant democracy and ending a month-long stalemate that had brought the region’s biggest economy to a near halt. But Benna Buluma, 48, just feels that she has been left further behind. Her son Victor Okoth was killed by the police the day after Kenya’s presidential election in August — a vote whose contested result pushed the country to the brink of a democratic crisis and set off protests and violence that human rights groups said led to roughly 70 deaths at the…

The potential for conflicts related to large-scale land acquisitions could be cut down significantly if seven key pieces of information are included in every property transaction, land professionals say. The International Land Measurement Standards (ILMS) are the first global benchmark for classifying, defining, measuring and reporting land information with the goal to improve tenure security and enable fair compensation. Large-scale land acquisitions can spark conflict because of their potential to drive local people from their land and homes, with research published last year showing displacement of local people was the most significant driver of investment disputes in Africa. The new…

The expected rise in US interest rates will increase financial pressures on developing countries already struggling with a 60% jump in their debt repayments since 2014, a leading charity has warned. The Jubilee Debt Campaign said a study of 126 developing nations showed that they were devoting more than 10% of their revenues on average to paying the interest on money borrowed – the highest level since before the G7 agreement to write off the debts of the world’s poorest nations at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. Five of the countries on the charity’s list – Angola, Lebanon, Ghana, Chad and Bhutan –…