Author: Rasna Warah
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Debunk Speaks To Abdullahi Bulle (NuriaStore)
ABDULLAHI BULLE dabbled in many business ventures before deciding to start an online bookshop in December 2015, at a time when paper books were being replaced by e-books. He founded NuriaStore, an online bookshop in Nairobi that specialises in delivering books to customers not just in Kenya but across Africa and the world. Today, Nuria…
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Why It Is Critical to Address Unresolved Land Issues in the Coast
The recent orchestrated “invasion” of land belonging to the Kenyatta family has once again highlighted the highly sensitive and contentious issue of land in Kenya, particularly among the Kikuyu of Central Kenya, whose grievances date back to the colonial era when British settlers took over their land and dumped them in “reserves”. Post-colonial elites further…
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Cults Flourish In Times Of Intellectual and Moral Collapse
In November 1978, James Warren Jones, an American preacher, orchestrated the mass murder by suicide of more than 900 people in a remote jungle commune in Guyana, South America. As founder of the People’s Temple, a doomsday cult, Jones managed to convince his followers to kill themselves by drinking punch laced with cyanide. About 70…
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Why were Kenyans not consulted before ban on GMOs was lifted?
It is unfortunate that Kenya lifted the ban on genetically modified (GMO) foods in October last year without sufficient public participation (a constitutional requirement) or debate on whether the growing and consumption of such foods is beneficial to the country and its citizens. As far as I know, no farmers’ associations or agricultural societies were…
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Debunk Speaks To Dr. Willy Mutunga
After a long career in teaching law at the University of Nairobi, Dr. WILLY MUTUNGA was detained without trial in July 1982 by the Daniel arap Moi regime for fighting for democratisation. He went on to head the Kenya Human Rights Commission, which he co-founded, and served as the president of the Law Society of…
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Kenya’s Economic Woes A Product Of The UhuRuto Presidency
I think it is quite disingenuous of opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters to lay the entire blame on President William Ruto for the high cost of living, considering that Kenyans have been choking under the yoke of rising inflation for at least a decade. While Ruto can take some of the blame for…
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Sex Tourism In Kenya’s Coast: A Form Of Neocolonialism
The end of the COVID-19 pandemic has, thankfully, seen tourism in Kenya’s coastal resorts pick up. Foreign and domestic tourists are once again flocking to coastal resorts like Mombasa, Diani and Malindi. The bad news is that some of these tourists are returning purely to engage in sex tourism. On any given day, in the…
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Debunk Speaks To Naomi Njeri Mwaura
NAOMI NJERI MWAURA is passionate about ensuring women’s safety in urban transport and other public spaces. In 2014, she was among hundreds of women who led the MyDressMyChoice campaign to protest against gender-based violence in Kenya’s public transport after a video of a woman being assaulted by a group of men near a bus stop…
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Attacks On LGBTQ+ Community Unwarranted
A judgement by the Supreme Court of Kenya allowing members of the LGBTQ+ community in Kenya to form an association has kicked up a storm, with leaders like National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula condemning the judgement because it did not uphold “public morality”, and Attorney-General Justin Muturi vowing to challenge the judgement on the basis…
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Sympathizing With Ukraine While Calling Out The West’s Hypocrisy
Let me say at the outset that I am no fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin. I believe what he is doing in Ukraine is a war crime. There is no justification for the killing of thousands of civilians, the displacement of millions of men, women and children, and the destruction of entire cities. Putin…