Chief Justice David Maraga has ruled out the resumption of open court sessions until after the coronavirus pandemic. The courts were to be re-opened after the Easter festivities but Maraga says that allowing open court sessions would provide grounds for the spread of the virus that has so far infected 281 people and killed 14. “Sitting court sessions attract people from all walks of life and involve the extensive exchange of papers from one advocate, judicial officer to another thus accelerating the risk of spreading the virus which has now spread to other counties,” Maraga told a news conference. He…
Author: NLM Editor
The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said last month. The impact of lost tourism revenues, falling remittances and travel and other restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic are expected to leave some 130 million people acutely hungry this year, adding to around 135 million already in that category. “COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread,” said Arif Husain, chief economist and director of research, assessment and monitoring at the World…
Some see in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call for “turning danger into opportunity” a Machiavellian plot to gain advantage from others’ misfortune. By Susan Thornton It has been discouraging to see the war of words waged between China and the US in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that is ravaging the globe. Now is the time for Winston Churchill’s “blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” not finger-pointing and gratuitous swipes. Our societies are resilient. We will get through this, but the opportunity to join hands and overcome this shared tragedy is evaporating with every Twitter barrage. The level of suspicion and mistrust between China…
Usually, effective critical incident management would be informed by the known nature of such incidents and the known management and contingency plans. By Peter Mwangi On February 28, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued Executive Order No. 2 of 2019, establishing the National Emergency Response Committee (NERC) to deal with the threat of COVID-19. Earlier, in January, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the viral disease a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. What started as a local public health incident in Wuhan, China, has swiftly transformed into a pandemic, with confirmed cases in over 160 out of 197 world countries.…
By Kevin Motaroki On August 28, 2018, at the Supreme Court building, Chief Justice David Maraga and DCI George Kinoti engaged in a daylong standoff over the arrest of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu. The DCI had gone to arrest Mwilu – the highest ranking judicial officer to be charged in recent times – on corruption charges and abuse of office. The intrigues of the dramatic arrest that ensued are laid bare in the book ‘60 Days of Independence: Kenya’s Judiciary Through Three Presidential Election Petitions’ – jointly authored by a panel of lawyers, judges and journalists under the auspices of…
By Shadrack Muyesu Process is crucial to the administration of justice. Without it, the court room would be a world of chaos. Articles 47 and 48 of the Constitution are instructive in this regard. But more than that, courts have come out to say that the right to fair administrative action imposes a duty of observance on not only judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, but also those tasked with investigations that could potentially significantly affect the perception of the accused among the upright society, or even warrant the commencement of a prosecution – (Re Pergamon Press Ltd [1971] Ch. 388 and…
The spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been a disaster for the economy, shown weaknesses in public health systems, and killed thousands people worldwide. It has also made clear how interconnected the modern world has become. Walls are futile for preventing the rapid movement of the virus around the globe. The failure to reach agreement on production cuts at the recent OPEC+ meetings in Vienna has sent oil prices plummeting, marking a return to volatility after a reasonably calm period. This event too shows the interconnection of the world via global markets. The oil “war” that emerged in Vienna…
The higher power gives us a chance every other sunrise to change our ways, we just don’t take it most of the time and end up thinking that we are forsaken By Jacob Oketch It is a very sad moment for me because I am sitting here at the CITAM church along valley road Nairobi for the funeral service of my dear uncle who succumbed to cancer. I am keenly aware of relatives and friends surrounding me, something I could not do when I was drinking. I can notice the pain of my cousins and their mother and I am…
By Cynthia Wairimu Have you ever felt like you’re constantly being criticized, nagged, and micromanaged? That no matter what you do, nothing seems to please those around you. You don’t feel respected as an adult. You end up saying whatever you have to in order to get people off your back. You wish others could relax even a little bit and stop trying to control every aspect of your life. If you have maybe you should be tested for ADHD (Attention Deficient hyperactivity Disorder). This is a mental disorder, a complex neurodevelopmental disorder brought by differences in brain development and…
For years before the recent uprising against authoritarian ruler Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese girls had shared pictures of their romantic crushes in a Facebook group dedicated to digging up dirt on local boys—a sort of crowdsourced background check. But as security agents escalated their crackdown on the nascent anti-government protest movement in September 2018, the network mobilised to identify and deter abuses by state security personnel. “You can post any photo for any person of the National Intelligence and Security Service,” said Azaz Elshami, an activist in the Sudanese diaspora, “and they will give you who he is, where he lives,…