Tag: Public Square

Occasionally, some of us get to legally breach the fences of private wildlife conservancies which apparently hold up to two-thirds of our wildlife and occupy over 7.5 million acres, for example, to watch the 2023 WRC Safari Rally live. For the rest, streamed dashcam footage placed us in the driver’s seat at thrilling speeds. But…

Have you ever agreed to attend an event you didn’t want to go to? Or hide your true feelings about an opinion a friend has? I think we’ve all done that from time to time. But if you’re like me, this constant violation of your own values is a frequent occurrence caused by a disease…

I do not seek to get into the pros and cons of the recently enacted Finance Act by the Kenya Kwanza government, even though it elicits a remark or more. Rather, it is the emotion that the bill – and later on the Act – has aroused across the country that most pricks my curiosity.…

A survey by Twaweza and the Centre for Fiscal Affairs shows that three-quarters of Kenyans were completely opposed to the Finance Bill 2023, which has now been passed into a law and is being challenged in court. Less than 2% of the 25,966 Kenyans who participated in the survey supported the Bill, while more than…

Any week you don’t see this column on your feed, it is mostly because I haven’t submitted it. I tell myself that I am too busy to write it, or I don’t know what to write about. But the truth is that when I hold back from submitting a piece to my editors, it is…

Ahmed Issack Hassan, the former chief of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has written his memoirs (more of an expose in my view) of his tenure in a newly published book Referee of a Dirty Ugly Game. This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in understanding the gang-ho political on-goings of…

When the Finance Bill finally makes it to Parliament, do you know how your MP will vote? For most Kenyans, the answer to that question will be “No”. For a law that promises much more than a 3 per cent housing development levy, you should be concerned. Kenya has a freedom of information law but…

The ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike has drawn attention to just how far businesses can go to eliminate humans and the cost of their labour from production. Here in Kenya, tea-picking machines were introduced to the great chagrin of workers.  One change that still seems far from Kenya is the cashier-less supermarket, where money leaves your…

Has the government lost confidence in its investigation into the cult of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge even before it has concluded the exercise? How else does one explain President William Ruto appointing a commission of inquiry into Mackenzie’s cult on the same day the first phase of post-mortems was concluded? On May 5, Government Chief Pathologist…

It is mind-boggling that the Kenya Kwanza  government believes it can get away with raiding Kenyans’ salaries through the proposed Housing Fund, which will see salaried employees part with as much as KSh 5,000 a month (with the matching amount paid by their employers) to contribute to a fund that may or may not benefit…