By Sunday Memba David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, once reflected on humanity and wondered about the ease with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. How is it that a cabinet secretary can prohibit the use of a substance that a populace has embraced as pleasure of their own? Even though our current grundnorm explicitly guarantees that the people’s power can be exercised by our elected representatives, it does provide that this power must be exercised according to the wishes and…
Author: NLM Editor
An Austrian privacy activist cannot bring a class action lawsuit against Facebook for alleged privacy violations but can sue the company himself in his home country, the European Union’s highest court ruled last month. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said Max Schrems could bring a case against the US company and benefit from consumer law as an individual, but could not bring claims on behalf of the more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit. Schrems alleges Facebook has illegally violated the privacy rights of European users, including by helping a US spy agency. Facebook rejects his…
By Nimo Kering The principle of blockchain, although still in its inception stages, remains an uncharted territory with respect to its potential impact on legal transactions in Kenya. The cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is a much more familiar concept. While bitcoin is not equivalent to blockchain, it is the database on which bitcoin runs. In the same way the law adapted to the Internet, it will have to adapt to the emergence of blockchain. Regulatory systems will have to be repositioned to cater for the complexities of this technology. Lawyers, regulators and the courts must not be left behind. Blockchain is a…
By Elsie Oyoo Last year, the Unga Group Chief Executive Officer enjoyed a 54 per cent pay rise despite the company suffering a Sh32 million loss. Also, in 2014, remuneration rose by 33 per cent for Kenya Airways directors despite reporting losses in the billions. These quoted companies are not isolated cases, and they have caught the attention of regulators. In response to the harm done to the public through bad governance and in line with global emerging practice, the Attorney General has taken a tough stance on directors’ remuneration by making into law the Companies General (Amendment) Regulations No.…
By Antony Mutunga “The blockchain is custom-made for decentralising trust and exchanging assets without central intermediaries. With the decentralisation of trust, we will be able to exchange anything we own and challenge existing trusted authorities and custodians that typically held the keys to accessing our assets or verifying their authenticity” – William Mougayar IN this digital era, it is difficult to find someone who has not heard about cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them. They have been the talk world over as they grow more and more popular and disrupt all types of markets around the globe. Since the introduction…
By David Onjili Barclay’s economic projection Barclays Africa launched their 2018 macroeconomic report last month. In the report, they highlighted key areas likely to affect the economy in the sub-Saharan region. Kenya’s projections were positive, with Barclays expecting the economy to grow to 5.5% in 2018 from 4.6% in a similar period in 2017. The company bases this growth on the fact that the political climate of 2017 has passed, and that the rain pattern this year is likely to be better spread and regular – meaning good agricultural returns. According to Barclays, both tourism and agriculture are expected to…
NLM Writer After enjoying about two decades of robust growth, the situation in Sub Saharan Africa seemed to have hit a snag after the economic growth slowed down sharply to 1.4% in 2016. This was mainly as a result of low commodity prices as well as the increasing imbalances in some large economies in the region such as Nigeria. In 2017, the region’s economy was able to slightly recover as its growth stood at 2.7%, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service, a credit rating agency. The growth was accredited to the slight recovery of the region’s big economies…
By Ali Abdi “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy” – Jack Welch, Former CEO, General Electric Simplicity is not always a virtue. In particular, simplicity is not a virtue when it leads to misconceptions and mistakes. Over the last decades, the term “shareholder primacy” has become synonymous with the perspective that the purpose of the corporation is to maximise shareholder wealth. However, questions arise as to whether the primary corporate objective of a company is simply to increase the shareholder wealth, or whether companies…
By Newton Arori Bail pending arrest, also called anticipatory bail, is a peculiar form of bail for it is issued even before one is arrested. One typically applies for anticipatory bail if he/she apprehends that there is a move to have them arrested on false charges, or that a false case is likely to be built up against them. In Kenya, anticipatory bail is not expressly provided for in the Constitution or in statute, thus one has to look to rely on case law. In this regard, the High Court in W’Njuguna v. Republic (2004) eKLR stated, “While the right…
By far, the biggest hurdle faced by CA in its quest to be independent is the influence of surrogate entities enlisted by the dominant operator in the market with the sole aim of delaying any process that may lead to the levelling of the playing field in the telecommunications sector. When Equity Bank announced its intention to introduce a thin sim card in the market to allow its customers opt out of Safaricom’s M-pesa platform, myriad of cases were “sponsored” by Safaricom to delay or otherwise frustrate the implementation of Equity Bank sim card operation. One such surrogate entity was…