Category: Public Square
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Hustler Fund Could End Up Hurting The Poor
Is the government’s Financial Inclusion Fund, popularly known as the Hustler Fund, a boon for low-income Kenyans seeking to start small businesses? Or is it as predatory and punitive as other digital loans? My tuk-tuk driver believes it is the latter. He applied for a Hustler Fund loan on the day it was launched and…
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Ahmed Rashid, Mathare’s Merchant Of Death?
Over the last six years, data collected by the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) puts Ahmed Rashid, a policeman attached to Pangani Police Station, on the defense regarding the deaths of, at least, 43 young people in Mathare. Among these victims are a 12-year-old boy and two teenagers, the latter whose broad daylight gangland-style execution…
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Fact-checking Can’t Wait Till The Next Election
Never before has fact-checking been more popular on the African continent than now. In Kenya, numerous fact-checking reports were written as the 2022 election came and went. Now, as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan and other countries go to the polls this year, the same will be true outside Kenya. Every word uttered will be scrutinised, and…
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Why I Believe ‘The IEBC Whistleblower’ Is Fake News
Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai and a few social media influencers have started boosting an alleged IEBC whistleblower’s claim that Raila Odinga won the 2022 presidential election by over 2.25 million votes. As the whistleblower remains anonymous, it is not possible to tell whether they exist. Certainly the spreadsheet of “true results” doing the rounds could…
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It’s Going To Take Long. Better Enjoy The Ride, Ninja
It’s the new year and for most people that means goal-setting time. Not me though, this whole season is too triggering for me to do anything that requires that much brain power and intentionality. But what I do have in mind going into the new year is a small tidbit I heard a few months…
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Governors, Beware! Of Upright and Conniving MCAs
“Authority assigned to a State officer is a public trust…” Article 73 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 Since the county-assembly-impeachment of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza Kawira on 14 December 2022 – hardly three months into the role – questions have emerged about the place of impeachment of governors by Members of County Assemblies…
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No More Police Reforms?
Within weeks of President William Ruto taking office, there were reports of the police being demoralised, disaffected and demotivated. One newspaper reported that this disaffection led the people in blue to carry out a “go-slow”. The Star, in a November 7 story quoted unnamed police officers who said they were on a go-slow to protest…
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Yes, Mr. President, Extrajudicial Killings By Police Must End
In October 2022, shortly after he assumed office, President William Ruto told officials of the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) that extrajudicial killings by police must end, describing these killings as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”. This surprisingly firm stand on police brutality and impunity from none other than the head of state was welcomed by human…
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The Case for Reviving Kenya’s Abandoned Transition
“The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” – Milan Kundera. This month marks fifteen years since Kenya’s journey to true nationhood was so viciously interrupted as we descended into 60 days of anarchy, more popularly known as the 2007/8 Post-Election Violence (PEV). That sad chapter in our national history…
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A Case For A Judicial Commission of Inquiry Into 15 August 2022
Clearly, there is an appetite for accountability for the riotous scenes at the Bomas of Kenya that almost torpedoed the announcement of the presidential election results on the 15th of August last year. In his first major interview session with the Kenyan press, President William Ruto acknowledged the need for a truth telling about what…