Vincent O’Neill is not your typical diplomat. He is supposed to treat disease, but he doesn’t do that these days; he diagnoses (pun very much intended) foreign policy instead. In fact he is a Doctor Diplomat who has lived and worked in Africa for much of his professional life. He is a medical doctor – not of letters – and a large part of his life has been to craft and advice on policy relating to HIV prevention and aid under his government’s Foreign Ministry. He has been in the trenches too, having lived in Sierra Leone, Uganda and Malawi,…
Author: NLM Editor
By Jim Asudi Secession and marital divorce are triggered by identical factors including, inter alia, cruelty of the domineering partner, broken promises, and irreconcilable differences. However, unlike divorce where parties share matrimonial properties between themselves, secession is more of a geographical withdrawal of a people from the parent state, with the departing nation taking away only its manpower, movable resources and tax obligations. In both cases, the desired end results are autonomy, freedom and independence. All these should inevitably lead to happiness. But happiness, as social scientists opine, is very elusive. This makes separation a risky adventure. The uncertainty of…
By Antony Mutunga After the gruesome Second World War, the world was left in shambles. Then, more than ever, there was a need for new rules concerning the global monetary system. In 1944, a group of delegates representing 44 countries met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to come up with new rules in what is today referred to as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, or the Bretton Woods Conference. After three weeks in the conference, the delegates were able to draw up an agreement that they all identified with. The end result of the conference was that under…
By Alexander Opicho It was Nicolai Gogol who first used the phrase ‘what is to be done’, in his categorical intellectual reaction to the politics of decay in Russia during the feudalist system of leadership in the Russian society of 16th Century. This statement is found in all the three books by Gogol; The Cloak, the Dead Souls and The Government Inspector. Gogol borrowed this statement from a line in a poem by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin was an Afro-Russian poet; his origin is in Abyssinia, Ethiopia. A century later, both Lenin and Tolstoy wrote a lot about what is to…
By Shadrack Muyesu We all accept the need for a dialogue if the Republic is to heal. Dialogue however, does not mean consultations between the National Super Alliance and Jubilee with a view of incorporating the former into government as has often been bandied, however musical that may sound. It is also not true, as is often told, that ours is a political crisis deserving a political solution and that the law is innocent. Indeed, that as well as the idea that a solution to our problems lies in expanding the Executive at the behest of the President is a…
By Tioko Ekiru Emmanuel The murder of Chris Msando, who was, until his death, Head of ICT at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for his stand on electoral integrity, a week before the 2017 General Election, was a clear bouncing back to the dark Nyayo era. The autopsy report established he was severely tortured and then strangled to death. His death is a replica of past cases, including the political assassinations of JM Kariuki, Pio Gama Pinto, Thomas Mboya, Father John Anthony Kaiser, Robert Ouko and Odhiambo Mbai. A consideration of Kenya’s political history reminds us of the…
By NLM Writer The sick daughter of Africa With the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and significant portions of the world’s diamonds, gold and copper haul, the Democratic Republic of Congo is potentially the richest country in the world. Yet she remains among the poorest and most underdeveloped. The story of the DRC is a depressing one. In the convoluted history of independent Africa, the giant central African state has long been an attraction for swindlers and mercenaries, and a centre of bloodstained intrigue. Historians, no less than Martin Meredith, describe her as, but for the short period between June…
By Calvine Paul Oredi The phenomenon of witness protection may sound alien to those with little fidelity to the criminal justice system. Its effectiveness has more often than not been doubted, and its impact in terms of reforms in the criminal justice system termed cosmetic. Witness protection is recognised as a fundamental human right by various instruments of both international and national law in the administration of justice. Article 50 of the Constitution of Kenya, under the Bill of Rights, not only provides for the protection of identity of witnesses and vulnerable persons in the interests of fair hearing before…
By NLM Writer In commemoration of the National Coalition on Human Rights Defenders 10th anniversary, the Nairobi Law Monthly spoke with its National Coordinator, Kamau Ngugi. The following is an excerpt of that interview. Perhaps we should begin by you telling us what the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders is, and how is it relevant to Kenya today. The National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders was established in 2007 with the objective of taking care of the welfare of and supporting the work of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs). As the name suggests, HRDs are persons or organisations that are…
By Rukaya Mohamed Since independence in 1963, although a democratic state, two tribes have run Kenya: the Kalenjin and Kikuyu. It is this phenomenon that is now causing uproar and political discontent. This is because democracy, being based on the voice of the vast majority with free and fair election, has not fairly reflected on the ethnic and social diversity of the country’s composition. Kenyan politics, like with most African countries, is a matter of power and resource allocation. For instance, during the Moi regime, regions that had a majority of Kalenjin tribes benefitted from development in health care, education…