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2014 – What’s In Store?

Interesting times ahead in the socio-legal world. This blog will interrogate the issues that affect Kenya’s and the world’s ‘social fabrique’ from a legal perspective. A lot will be happening on this front.

Matters ICC
The Hague trials will resume. Debates around the genuineness of the prosecutions and the politics of the ICC will definitely get back to the lips of many both locally and internationally. There will again emerge voices for an African renewal and we’ll be observing the African Union to see how objectively it will try to push the “African-ness” agenda. This blog will not refrain from scorning the African Union when it strongly believes that it’s agenda is pushed by an exclusive club of old dictators keen on protecting their behinds from harmful acts they are likely to commit on their own people. This blog will however applaud any genuine African voice that seeks a renewal for the African woman, child, elderly, marginalized, person with disability etc. African human rights system constantly plagued by  funding concerns will be scrutinized.

Migrant Rights
This blogger has since developed an interest in issues affecting migrants both forced and voluntary. Speaking of which …. This blog will closely scrutinize efforts by the African Union while pushing the African agenda to see if it lends a listening ear to the plight of the many migrants being overtly ill treated by the Israeli government and who yesterday commendably staged a protest to bring the issues to the attention of the international community. Gandhi said (paraphrase) that a government’s worth is measured by how it treats the weakest members of society. The migrant issue is a major one both regionally and internationally. Here we have forced migrants while abroad we have economic migrants who either due to persecution or tough life swap their normal lives for tough and uncertain lives in the Diaspora. If the AU continues to turn a deaf ear to the sighing and groaning of migrants in Israel and the Middle East … then it has absolutely no business claiming to protect African interests.

Somalia Repatriation
Speaking of forced migrants, this blog intends to write extensively on the implementation of the tri-partite agreement between the Governments of Kenya and Somalia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Utterances by Kenyan state officials so far already raise questions about the genuineness of the Kenya Government involvement in the agreement. The elaborate processes contained therein make voluntary repatriation a lengthy process and not an event. We hope that the principle of Non-refoulment and the dignity of the human will be protected throughout this process.

Devolution Implementation
This blog will scrutinize discussions that are likely to benefit or water down the process of devolution. This blog is concerned that Members of the County Assemblies still have very little knowledge of the importance of their role in the devolution process. Accountability – an underlying principle behind this process will be very important. The continuing struggle between the governors and the central government on one side, the governors and the senators on the other and further still the Senators and the members of the national assembly threatens to derail the process of devolution. The constitution envisions coordination, concerted effort, selflessness and statesmanship in ensuring a successful process. Hopefully the stakeholders will see how important these principles are.

The Politics of the Profession
This blog will also examine the politics within the legal profession and how this will affect the ability of the law society of Kenya to keep the executive, parliament and the judiciary ‘on toes’ as it ought to and an important civil society organization. The Chairperson-ship, council membership, membership to the Disciplinary Committee and the hotly contested membership to the Judicial Service Commission will be up for grabs. It is the hope of every Kenyan that a stronger Law Society will emerge from this process.

Legal Aid
Legal Aid is a topic dear to this blogger’s heart. The legal aid bill in this country has stalled. It is not fashionable to bring such a piece of proposed legislation to the floor of the house at this point in time. There is a parallel push for the inclusion of legal aid as a post-2015 millennium development goal agenda. Kenya is very much involved in the post-2015 MDGs discussions. Hopefully this will influence the need to hasten the enactment of this very important law in Kenya. Access to justice is a right in our constitution thus making any impediment to the actualization of this right unconstitutional. Legal Aid cuts in the UK threaten access to justice and lawyers have been mobilized to protest against this. Such events ought to inform our approach to the issue.


Hopefully this year will see strides – if not leaps in the socio-legal world. Let us take this journey together….

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