From the foregoing, it is clear that the investigation into what exactly Mackenzie was up to and what crimes were committed at Shakahola is, at best, at its halfway point. This is further emphasised by the fact that investigators have begun a second phase of exhumations from Shakahola, raising the death toll and further horrifying an already shocked nation.

I watched the outcome of the just-concluded Nigeria election in

“The state is not God. It has no right to

Watching the mother-of-all-protests and Raila Odinga’s cavalcade traverse Nairobi the other day, I learned a new phrase. Stochastic terrorism is observed where a charismatic leader uses mass media as a platform to incite violence, while simultaneously disclaiming responsibility for the violence.  Carefully choosing his words he (the leader) – for it is invariably a ‘he’ – identifies a population that he can manipulate, groom if you like, over time, and prime them with a steady stream of conspiracy theory, slogans and identifier labels. The labels concretise groupthink. Them against us. Us against them. Us against him. You get my drift. 

“The struggle of people against power is the struggle of

On 20 April 2023, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk retired

My name is Soila Kenya and I have a confession.

It is a Sunday afternoon and the sun is playing

The tragic happenings at Mukumu Girls and Butere Boys schools

Last week I had breakfast with a colleague. As we exchanged pleasantries waiting for our meal, she mentioned in passing that she’d be attending a public participation meeting that could clash with our next planned meeting. It turns out that she is an active participant in her neighbourhood’s local resident association, and she has been joining forces with others to oppose the runaway illegal construction projects mushrooming in the area. 

An interesting thing happened in February. An organisation called the

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will

Parliament, in particular, continues to hold back information from the public regarding its operations. Recently in the Senate, the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition accused their Kenya Kwanza counterparts of being against devolution. Instead of KSh 407 billion as the Senate’s standing committee of budget and finance had recommended, the house approved KSh 385 billion in equitable share to the counties. Senators from Azimio staged a walkout to show their displeasure, but what they did next revealed how transparency in law-making is manipulated for political ends. 

“The great marriages are partnerships. It can’t be a great

The year 2023 is monumental for the Pan-African movement and

Despite what Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua says, the Government of Kenya is not a company with shareholding. But rather, the government is a duty bearer exercising public trust according to law, staffed by people appointed and regulated by national law, and financed by the entire public. This is the short answer to Rigathi Gachagua’s jocular transgression against Article 10 of the Constitution. 

Since the commencement of the 13th Kenyan Parliament, it has been raining constitutional amendment bills. The hangover from the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) constitutional review (mis)adventure seems not to have dissipated. Parliamentarians, both rookies (trying to make their dramatic legislative debuts) and seasoned (trying to flex to rookies) have swiftly suggested amendments. Not in censure – because this is part of their mandate – the suggestions, whether valid or not, seem not well thought out. 

Kenya’s Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen posted two 2014 loan contracts between Kenya

Kenya’s enforcement of traffic laws tends to be immobile and document-based, particularly around heavy commercial vehicles. The police who enforce traffic rules are stationary, mostly on the side of the road and drivers who pass through these checkpoints can always warn their oncoming colleagues. On the other hand, roaming police cars with cameras that scan number plates and onboard computers connected to insurance and police records would pinpoint offenders in real time and help police stop the right vehicles more often. Such police cars are commonly used in many countries.

Ever since Kenya was a republic, dominion, colony, or left

There are national subjects that require assemblage of evidence and

“Authority assigned to a State officer is a public trust…” 

I do not seek to get into the pros and cons of the recently enacted Finance Act by the Kenya Kwanza government, even though it elicits a remark or more. Rather, it is the emotion that the bill – and later on the Act – has aroused across the country that most pricks my curiosity. In my view, there have been fewer times when national discourse has been characterized by great animation like has been the case as regards this piece of legislation (first proposed, then passed, and now challenged in court). 

Why does it seem like we have been here before?

In 2016, a near-brawl broke-out in the Kenyan Senate. The respective combatants were Evans Kidero, the then Governor of Nairobi County, and Mike Mbuvi Sonko, his Senator. It is not clear who won the actual fight, but we now know that Nairobians lost because the Auditor General just told us so. You see, during the consecutive gubernatorial administrations of Evans Kidero and Mike Sonko, no-one could explain the whereabouts of KSh 18 billion of collected revenue. For those who think in hard currencies, that is a respectable $12.6 million missing. But Nairobi residents didn’t know this until seven years later when the press finally reported that according to the Auditor General, “billions of shillings collected in Kenya’s capital may have ended in private hands.”

Other than the preying strategy pyramid schemes use to recruit people, the reason I see them as cults too is their ability to similarly brainwash their members into believing whatever hogwash they’re spreading. For example, for those selling supplements or other health-based products, it may go haywire fast. They’ll start you out schilling Vitamin D tablets and then in the blink of an eye, they’ll have you convincing your Facebook connects about ‘force fields’ and ‘protection zones’ that can be afforded by adorning a necklace with a pendant stuffed with a powder only they know the ingredients of.

This is the same Nairobi in which public green spaces are grabbed, buildings collapse, residents can’t sleep on a weeknight because bars won’t let them and drainage can’t stand the rainy season. The story revolves around a property on Kilimani’s Kindaruma Road whose construction in April 2022 was not as far advanced as it is today.

Kenyans are a skeptical lot (who can blame them, seeing

As a Kenyan living in Kenya, the last few months have been difficult to say the least. Like many others, I have watched the prices of basic goods and services quickly skyrocket.. It’s become a running joke, but the truth is that KSh 1,000 doesn’t get you much nowadays. To make life bearable under these increasingly strenuous circumstances, I’ve had to cut down my monthly spending on non essentials and started considering price over brand preferences.

Instagram boutiques have me in a chokehold. I can’t help

What state do our mother’s live in, constantly knowing that

“Imagine a lawyer or doctor with dreadlocks.” – Peter Kaluma, MP

One of the ten demands made by the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga when he appointed a team to talk to President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza seeks to enforce a Turn-Coat Rule requiring rebel Members of Parliament who cross party lines after election to resign, and to allow parties to replace nominated MPs. We are lucky as a country that MPs cannot be removed from Parliament in Kenya willy-nilly.

In November 2022, Akinyi, a domestic worker from Kariobangi, was

To begin with, considering the number of accidents that occur, causing death by dangerous driving is not a much charged offence. Latest statistics for 2020 show that there were 290 charges brought against 26 female drivers and 264 men. So I expected that courts would be throwing the book at accused persons. But alas, the courts are imposing sentences that cannot be seen to address the carnage on the roads with any measure of seriousness. The lawyers, defending accused persons, have had it so good that a fine of just over KSh 600,000 for killing three and injuring a fourth was in the estimation of one defence counsel so excessive and draconian that he has promised to appeal against both the sentence and the conviction.

Njonjo Mue takes us back to a magical time when he felt the first flutterings of tender teenage love.

This was not the story BBC Africa Eye had set

This month marks 33 years since Nelson Mandela walked out

Today’s Jubilee Party is a far cry from its earlier

It’s the new year and for most people that means

Discovering a great book among the titles that have been

“It is important to expose yourself to ideas you don’t

I spent Monday this week waiting for an email that

The limits of free speech and political propaganda have just been made clearer in the United States where Dominion, a vote machine manufacturer has just settled a defamation suit against Fox News for over 106 billion Kenya shillings. Since former American President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat in 2020 Fox News had become a redoubt from where his baseless and fraudulent claims were trumpeted. Signaling how weak its case, and Trump’s claims were, the staggering figure Fox News has agreed to pay is actually half of the damages claimed by Dominion. The case was settled on the first day of trial.

Maps have long been a staple of election reporting. The US Presidential election, for instance, is one of the most mapped anywhere. Be it the presidential election or the midterms, maps help voters everywhere to digest and understand results. Typically, results are reported from precinct to county, to state, and then nationally. Use of more granular maps produces data that better visualises local politics.

My 20s were mostly employed on the political street beat

One change that still seems far from Kenya is the cashier-less supermarket, where money leaves your account as you walk out of the store. Of course, cashier-less services such as Amazon Go are only ever possible because of all the personal data that is continuously collected. Security of the data and privacy are obviously concerning, but its seamlessness makes it very alluring. 

Either politics is Kenya’s chakula cha moyo (soul food) or

I was born in one country, spent my early childhood

Did you know that Kenya’s Parliament exempted our first two

In the freak-out following a State House visit by a bunch of ODM MPs the other day, Kisumu County Governor Prof. Peter Anyang Nyong’o implored the ODM leadership on Twitter to remember Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s rule; “In a revolutionary situation: Better fewer but better.”

One must-do if you ever travel to Japan is signing

As you watched the BBC Africa Eye documentary about the

When times are tough, governments declare they will slash spending and Kenyan ones are no different. Kenyans will remember when Uhuru Kenyatta, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance…

I’m writing to you from a chilly Japan today. I

And now the work begins on the preparations for the

As rescue efforts following the Turkey-Syria earthquake were thought of

I remember the first time I candidly told a friend

Growing up in a deeply patriarchal society does something to you. You come to expect violence, either the explicit physical kind that leaves women dead, or the more subtle emotional and psychological kind that takes a lifetime to undo. 

Fela Anikulapo Kuti, one of the most talented and famous

15 years ago, in January 2007, Nairobi hosted the World