By Elsie Oyoo By definition, a stateless person is one who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law. According to a 2014 Report on “The World’s Stateless” published by the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, there are at least 10 million stateless persons around the world, enough to populate a country or two. To have such a great number of people living under such a precarious civil status does not bode well because more often than not, they are kept out of their fundamental human rights and freedoms. Although human rights are attached…
Author: NLM Editor
The Sexual Offences Act is intended to among others protect children from paedophiles, adults who take undue advantage of the innocent, defenceless and vulnerable children. The question then that keeps showing up like a bad penny is, what about children who, on their own agree to have sex? Should they be penalised? Recently, the issue found itself in an Eldoret Court. CWK vs. Attorney General & Another (2014) eKLR is a case involving two children, both 16 years of age, “lovers” who allegedly engaged in consensual sexual act. Being the boy’s girlfriend, the girl had gone to the boy’s house and had…
By Robin Nyore The criminal trial justice system in Kenya is one that is robust and extraneous. It’s composed of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions established under Article 157 of the Constitution, as the prosecuting authority acting for the State, the magistrates and judges, as the impartial umpire adjudicating these cases before the courts and the accused. Criminal trials and courts in Kenya are at best a showcase between the State – through the DPP, a qualified lawyer in his/her own standing – and the accused, most often than not a layman. It’s a battle between two…
By Alexey Chechenin Both Kenya and Russia started processes of reducing governmental influence on national economies in 1980s. One of the most important steps towards liberalisation of economy was the establishment of anti-monopoly regulation. The first legal act in Kenya to protect and develop competition was the Restrictive Trade Practices, Monopolies and Price Control Act (Cap.504 of the Laws of Kenya in 1988), which came into effect in 1989. Because it was proven ineffective, it was replaced by The Competition Act, 2010. On the other hand, Russian history of anti-monopoly regulation started with the adoption of two federal acts: On…
By Newton Arori “Because the judicial branch is naturally ‘feeble’, it is in continual jeopardy of being overpowered, awed, or influenced by its co-ordinate branches” – Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 78 Mandatory sentences prescribe a fixed penalty upon conviction, and thus allow the judge/magistrate no discretion upon sentencing. For example, The Penal Code prescribes the mandatory punishment of death upon conviction of certain offences in Kenya thus: “Any person convicted of murder shall be sentenced to death” [Section 204]; “Any person who is guilty of the offence of treason shall be sentenced to death” [Section 40 (3)]; “If the…
By Prof Ben Sihanya Kenya’s constitutional and policy-making framework The Constitution of Kenya provides for certain constitutional responsibilities of public officers when enacting or rescinding public policies, and rules and regulations that affect or are related to the enjoyment of human rights. My overarching argument is that there are three main constitutional requirements that public officers must always consider when enacting or rescinding public policies, rules and regulations. First, public officers are required to adhere to the set values and principles of governance. Article 10 of the Constitution binds and subjects all state officers to have due consideration to participation…
By Kelvin Njuguna Mugwe The happenings in the political scene in Kenya after the August 8 election have been historic, to say the least. Political hype has never been as divisive yet as interesting and intriguing as it is now. From the nullification of a presidential election, a first in Africa, to the intensive, bareknuckle and character assassination motivated campaigns, the political temperatures have never been higher. The two protagonists, Jubilee and Nasa, having both undergone a seesaw of emotions, have reverted to exceptional chest thumping and hubris. The Nasa brigade has been drawing inspiration from the presidential nullification, which…
By Kenyatta Otieno Immediately IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced Uhuru Kenyatta as president elect on August 11, several things happened. Jubilee Party strongholds went into celebration frenzy as NASA strongholds reacted in two ways. One side went into a silent sulky mood while the Luo dominated areas burst into protests, which was met by the full force of police brutality. Raila Odinga and Nasa maintained that they were not going to court but promised to give a way forward on August 15. Come that day Raila announced that they are going to court to give Supreme Court a chance to…
By Peter Wanyonyi Back in 1929, at the height of British colonial oppression in Kenya, the Kikuyu Central Association sent Jomo Kenyatta abroad to lobby for Kikuyu land rights and restitution. It was felt that, given the denial of rights to Black people to express themselves in British colonial Kenya, there was only one place in the world that would tolerate and, in fact, welcome and embrace the ideals of free speech and open debate to the extent needed to push African land rights to the fore of British colonial debate. That place was, quite ironically, Britain – the colonial…
By Ali Abdi The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. From time to time, lawyers and judges have tried to define what constitutes fairness. Like defining an elephant, it is not easy to do, although fairness in practice has the elephantine quality of being easy to recognise. As a result of these efforts, a word in common usage has acquired the trapping of legalism: “acting fairly” has become “acting in accordance with the rules of natural justice,” and on occasion has been dressed up with Latin tags… as…