A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the season of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…….”   – Charles Dickens, ‘ A Tale of Two Cities .’ Summing up a year as eventful as Two-Thousand and Eleven can be one hell of a task, even for the best of writers. Indeed reflecting on the year in the different spheres of life brings flashes that are almost unfeasible to pen.  A better option at this point of the year would be to view my personal shortfalls and rare victories and secretly make resolutions for the new year – secret due to the almost certainty of not living up them coupled with the shame that I publicly made them! However, after much thought, I decided as an option to reflect on the long year by coming up with wishes for t...

The "House of Terror" - Budapest, 1062 Andrassy ut 60 So today I finally got to visit the ‘House of Terror’ one of those places you certainly ought to visit if you ever pass by Budapest, Hungary! It is described as a museum that commemorates the victims of terror as well as a reminder of the dreadful acts of terror carried out by ‘victimizers’. The building, and the museum inside are a vivid, impressive recreation of different periods of Hungarian history that the country has tried to move on from albeit painfully. The Different sections of the Museum that begins with a hallway full of victims, then instruments of torture, actual cells, gallows and a morgue, witness accounts displayed on screens and pictures that tell a thousand words all bear testimony to the atrocities witnessed and meted. The building housed the Hungarian Nazis in the early 1940’s and later a residence of the AVO and subsequently the AVH who are known to have participated in the worst forms of crimes agai...

Courtesy of The Standard There have been several complaints especially from civil society against the recently appointed Attorney General. Indeed, blogosphere and the media are awash with news about complaints by the civil society about the AG’s sudden change to become an alleged defender against that which is against public interest. This is as a result of, first, the failed appeal against the controversial Justice Ombija decision issuing warrants against the Sudanese President Mr. El Bashir where the AG chest-thumping insisted on the illegality of the decision and promised to appeal the decision saying that the President was immune from prosecution. Second was a recent announcement by the AG that the State would cover the defense costs of the ‘Ocampo 6’– persons accused of being the main perpetrators of the 2007/2008 post election violence, and who are currently anxiously awaiting the verdict of the International Criminal Court, which is set to decide in the next month whether the ...

As Kenyans relax for the public holiday and celebrate the birth of the Republic its a good opportunity for us to reflect upon what our freedom fighters fought so gallantly for, many of them dying either before witnessing it, or sadly in bitterness at having gotten nothing from a thankless country that all but immediately forgot the gallantry. What's interesting is how many a middle class would kill to have a holiday every so often and waste some few valuable shillings on nyama choma and drinks!! So I thought that as a way of reflection, it is important to look at some of the things that are happening or have happened over the past few months, some which seem to reflect the aspirations and dreams that drove the struggle for a republic on the one hand, and those that show a sad directionless state of affairs and hence nothing much to celebrate about. Those that are not Kenyan Seats worth Kshs. 210, 000 for a refurbished parliament, not Kenyan. Sinister Constitutional propose...

Once again the JSC is 'on-point' in its latest appointment of 7 new judges of the Court of Appeal. The ration of appointments is clearly in favour of the women i.e. 5 out of the 7 are women. This follows the earlier appointment of 28 new judges of the High Court 13 of whom were women. Indeed, the Court of Appeal has been largely identified with a perpetual delay in the administration with many calling upon it to work at changing its public image. Indeed, the Justice William Ouko led Task force report not only only found that there were vacancies at the court of appeal (11 instead of the then 14 allowed) but even out of the 11 judges, there was no woman judge at the Court of Appeal. The Constitution of Kenya, as a result of a reflection on some of these grave inequities and disparities is very clear on the issue of gender representation at all levels of and in all arms of government. Whether a woman judge matters can be seen from some reflections in this rather short, simple...

http://www.princessprojectkenya.com/archived/legal/constitutional-sea-of-empowerement-by-bemih-k-luseka/ This is a link to a piece I did a while back. The gains in this document are remarkable. We cannot start cutting the bones and reshaping them as opposed to what we surely ought to be 'neck deep' doing, which is, sourcing for, creating and developing quality flesh to put on to the already designed constitutional bone frame.  

Courtesy of The Nation My condolences to the families of the victims of Monday’s petrol explosion tragedy, and further quick recoveries to the many who are still fighting for their lives in hospitals around the city. Many were still in bed – probably unemployed, others were roaming the streets – hoping to get something to do for the day, others had just come back from slaving in the industrial area factories/industries – having worked for more almost 14 hours with little or no pay, and sadly others were children preparing for or heading off to school – just resuming after having been home for a whole week following the week –long teachers strike, and going back to the same conditions that will probably ensure they struggle to make something of themselves. Gandhi said that a government worth its salt is one that cares for its most vulnerable. The continued spillage on to the streams and river that pass through the informal settlement, by the state corporation charged with ensuring that ...

Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits. The constitution of Kenya, 2010 prominently recognizes this right – Article 43 (1) (f). Section 3 of the Education Act tasks the Minister for Education with ensuring a development plan (policy) consistent with any national plan for economic and social development of Kenya. The Ministry of Education’s vision is ‘to provide, promote and co-ordinate lifelong education, training and research for Kenya’s sustainable development. To focus on priority areas within overall education goals……’ The Teachers Service Commission currently established under in the Constitution (Article 237) and the TSC Act whose Section 4 mandates the TSC to establish and maintain a teachers service adequate to the needs of public schools in Kenya, and for that purpose the Commission shall have power - (a)  to recruit and e...

Judge Nsereko (Appeals Chamber Presiding Judge - Government of Kenya Admissibility Challenge)  Once again Kenya’s rot was brought to the fore with the rejection and throwing out of the Appeal on admissibility, which was aimed at having the case against the six suspects dismissed, and affirming a decision of the Pre-trial Chamber on the admissibility challenge. Reading the ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision the Presiding Ugandan Judge Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko pointed out that Pre-trial’s chamber’s same person same conduct test was appropriate. He said that the Pre-trial chamber correctly decided that the cases against the suspects were admissible. The court said that the suspects’ conduct had not been investigated by the national jurisdiction and therefore there was no need to find the case inadmissible. There is however still a chance for each of the suspects to file their own fresh admissibility challenge, but my ‘palm reader’…… and my more learned and realistic gut feeling ...

  Picture C ourtesy of BBC The drama that has been building up in London lately, on phone hacking allegations and generally on the irresponsibility of the Media in the quest for stories to sell. I therefore watched with great interest when Rupert Murdoch (recently ranked among the most influential personalities in the world) appeared before Culture Media and Sport committee on phone-hacking in London. Not only was an owner of one of the largest (global) media enterprise on the dock, but more importantly there was a general spotlight on the media. Background in a nut-shell The News International phone hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving the News of the World, a now-defunct British tabloid newspaper published by News International — a subsidiary of News Corporation — and the allegations that individuals working for the newspaper engaged in phone hacking. There are related allegations that the newspaper had obtained information in further illicit ways including m...

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society”. Indeed, a state cannot run a democracy well without taxation, and a taxation system cannot be run well without a democracy.     Like other legal issue, tax has the constitution as its initial source. It then finds its way into legislation that operationalizes these constitutional provisions. However, different governments have their own ways of creating taxation policies depending on what they hope to achieve for their electorate (…..or for itself as is the sad situation in this our great republic!) For a long time now especially during the Moi Regime, tax collection suffered greatly. Poor compliance in the informal sector, narrow coverage of existing tax instruments, poor tax collection and tax administration efforts. No one enjoys paying taxes and would be more than happy to have this burden removed. It is therefore important that in an attempt by state to reduce the ‘load of taxation’, ...

  A picture of a poor woman in the hunger striken turukana region of northern Kenya An indigent and destitute woman goes to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) office in Kasarani Constituency, Nairobi (a fund created by the CDF Act Cap 10 of 2003, whose purpose is for development and in particular in the fight against poverty at the constituency level. ……). Her son has been threatened with expulsion from a local Secondary School for the habitual default in school fees payment. The arrears are in the tens of thousands and her only wish is to reduce the amount hoping against hope that an upcoming business idea will soon come to fruition. It has been a while now since she paid any fees for her son and the patient head teacher has been extremely considerate of her plight, but then again the school cannot run on prayers..... Down in the sprawling Korogocho slums, the number of young boys and girls, many who are friends of her son, haven’t seen the inside of a class room ever sin...