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Chief Justice nominee Martha Koome was vetted by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) on Thursday. If approved by the Parliamentary Committee, she will become the first Kenyan woman holder of the Chief Justice position. The composed CJ nominee met an approving JLAC, which gave her an early satisfaction as she responded to the questions raised. Suna East Junet Mohamed split everything, when the Chair sought to know the significance of the foot noise that was made by the MPs. Ms Koome is set to become the fifteenth Chief Justice of Kenya . Parliamentary approval will pave way for the subsequent appointment and swearing in as the Chief Justice. After parliamentary endorsement her name will be forwarded to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The position of a chief justice is recognized among the three arms of government. A Chief Justice doubles as the President of the Supreme Court and is ranked fourth in the government pecking order. The President is the first followed by the...

Senior Counsel Fred Ngatia might be Kenya’s Chief Justice. The interview started on a calculative cadence, unstiffened tone, as Ngatia was taken to task over his ambition to succeed Maraga . The CJ aspirant demonstrated how he had read broadly – when he recounted his philosophical skills and linked the knowledge he had gained to the legal realm. He told the panel that he restored harmony at the University of Nairobi, when the institution was bedeviled by rampant indiscipline cases.  “I started working with the universities to be able to find a solution on how to deal with the 80,000 students. I came up with a handbook that helped to curb this issue of the perennial problem of indiscipline,” he told JSC. Legal experts read much from the past advocate-client relationship between Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and Senior Counsel Fred Ngatia. Former DPP Philip Murgor , who is among the CJ aspirants, had moved to court seeking the recusal of Mwilu from the interviewi...

Philip Murgor and acting Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu nose-dived into a battle of words during the JSC interview. It was evident that the two are sworn adversaries.  Ag Chief Justice Mwilu posed: “Are you still with me?” Murgor replied: “I’ve totally lost you. I don’t know whom you are with.” Murgor had earlier demanded the recusal of DCJ Mwilu from the JSC interviewing panel over his past advocate-client relationship with Fred Ngatia . Ngatia is among the 10 candidates who were cleared to be interviwed for the position of Chief Justice. During the interview, he kept on referring Mwilu as acting Chief Justice . The former DPP ashamed deputy chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, when he clarified that: “An acting Chief Justice is not the same as having a Chief Justice. It is a fact there is no substantive Chief Justice in office.” Senior Counsel Philip Murgor, while appearing before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), during an interview for the Chief Justice position , ...

When President Uhuru Kenyatta introduced new Covid-19 restrictions on Friday, many Kenyans were got unaware. A number of Kenyans will find themselves in unfamiliar territories, once the sanction comes into effect on Friday midnight. The cessation of movement in and out of Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu and Nakuru has gotten many Kenyans talking as a number of them complain about the timeline given before the sanctions comes into effect. One person who had travelled to Nairobi for treatment and discharged on Friday was planning to travel to his Eldoret home on Saturday, before he received the shocking news. The person complained to NTV reporter that he doesn’t have a house in Nairobi and doesn’t have enough money to sustain him in a Hotel room. Apart from the cessation of movement in and out of the aforementioned Counties, the President also announced the following measures:  There will be no in-person gatherings of any kind in the five counties that have recorde...

Kenya government has given UNHCR 14-day ultimatum for the closure of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. Kenya has cited national security threats as the reason behind its decision to shut down the two refugee camps. According to Nation Media, the government has already written a letter to UNHCR. The camps should be closed within the stipulated time. Kenya and Somalia diplomatic rows set to escalate as the government plans to transport the over 500,000 Somali refugees to the border of Somali, upon the expiry of the 14-day period. Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i conveyed the government’s decision to the UNHCR representative in Kenya, Fathiaa Abdalla on Tuesday. Matiang’i was accompanied by Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and Chief Administrative Secretary Hussein Dado. The decision signals the worsening relation between Kenya – Somalia relation and will likely trigger global alarm. The civil war in Somalia caused its citizens to flee and seek asylum i...

The government of Kenya, through SRC, is on the verge of introducing a raft of measures meant to manage the bloated wage bill. According to KBC report, allowances and benefits paid to public servants will soon be reduced. Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has drafted a policy that will see all public sector allowances harmonized.  SRC chairperson Lynn Mengich claimed that the absence of a policy framework to determine the payment of allowances in the public sector had led to increased wage bill, that has doubled within a span of five years. “The wage bill has been increasing over the years, rising from kshs.434.9 billion in 2012/13 to kshs.827 billion in 2019/20. The expenditure on allowances rose from ksh.263.3 billion in 2015/16 to kshs.322.5 billion in 2018,” Mengich stated. Ms Mengich revealed that all the 247 allowances paid to public officers accounted to almost 48 percent of the total wage bill.  “Different institutions pay allowances using differen...

IEBC has criticized the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) proposal to create 70 new constituencies. IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati termed the proposal to allocate new constituencies as unconstitutional. Chebukati made those comments while appearing before a parliamentary Justice and legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday, where he complained that he was not consulted, yet the constitution empowered his commission to distribute new constituencies.  “The Bill can propose constituencies to be created, but not to determine which county the constituencies are created, that’s our mandate, and if the Bill is passed as it is, then it will be unconstitutional,” Chebukati stated. Chebukati further took issue with the six-month time frame given to them by the BBI committee to create new constituencies. He stated that it wasn’t possible to do delimitation of additional constituencies within the specified time, arguing that the process was emotive. “Delimitation of boundaries is alway...

Police Spokesman Charles Owino has sturdily differed with Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. fred Matiang’i over the entry grades to the police service. Owino claimed that police who scored C+ and above in KCSE go back to school and get degrees, which they use to pursue for promotions. “We have a challenge when we employ every policeman with Grade C+ and above. They go back to school, get degrees and come back and ask for promotions. It is important we get officers who have C plain, C- and D+,” Owino told a local media station on Wednesday. Owino’s sentiments are in contradiction to Matiangi’s proposal that the entry grade for policemen be increased to enhance their efficiency in handling complicated cases that involved scientific and forensic analysis. Matiang’i had posed: “If we are admitting you with a D+ then we are telling you to go to the complex science of analyzing blood and preparing a document that the DPP is going to use in court to prove murder, are we seriously ho...

Kenya decided that they will not appear in international court over the maritime border case pitting the country against Somalia . According to a local publication, the decision was prompted after the emergence of claims of bias against a Mogadishu-linked judge and the refusal of the international court to delay proceedings due to Covid-19. Somalia had filed a case at the international criminal of justice (ICJ) in 2014, accusing Kenya over intrusion on its maritime territory. However, Kenya was swift and strongly defended its territorial integrity.  The government of Somalia under the leadership of the embattled president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has in the recent years taken a more hostile approach towards Kenya president Uhuru Kenyatta   accusing him of meddling in its internal affairs. The decision to withdraw the case was communicated by Kenya’s attorney general Paul Kihara on March 11, a few days before the commencement of the hearing on March 15. The decisi...

There have been intense speculations over the whereabouts of Tanzania president John Pombe Magufuli , with many social media users alleging that he is admitted in the Kenyan capital hospital. Other sources as quoted by the African report revealed that Magufuli was admitted in Dar es Salaam and was suffering from Covid-19 related complications. Tanzania opposition leader Tundu Lissu demanded for information about the health status of president Magufuli. Reports by the Daily Nation indicated that Magufuli was being treated for Covid-19 in Nairobi Hospital in Kenya. However, the hospitalization of Magufuli in the neighboring country Kenya has not been officially confirmed. “The president’s wellbeing is a matter of grave public concern. What is it with Magufuli that we don’t deserve to know?” opposition leader Tundu Lissu posed on Twitter.  #Pray4Magufuli trended on Twitter for the better part of Wednesday as netizens prayed for his quick recovery. However, a number of soci...

United Kingdom (UK) has become the first country in the world to back an initiative where 90 young people will take up the human challenge of being exposed to Covid-19 . The challenge is set to bolster the development of Covid-19 vaccines and treatment. At least 90 young health volunteers aged between 18 and 30 will be exposed to coronavirus in a ‘safe and regulated environment.’ The study involves young adults because of low risk. Similar studies have been held in the past for diseases like flu, cholera and malaria. According to Aljazeera, UK government has invested $46.6 million in the study under the auspices of the UK government’s Vaccine Taskforce, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College London and hVIVO. Since the onset of the pandemic, UK has reported over four million coronavirus cases. At least 120,000 UK citizens have succumbed to the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson enforced the third lockdown on January 4, after a new variant ...