Author: Alex

Last week, two settings involving parliamentary membership revealed troubling signals regarding Parliament’s independence. The retreat organized by the president, which involved the Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group, and the proceedings in the National Assembly culminating in the passage of the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023, provides an easy justification for the sceptics of parliamentary independence. The retreat in Naivasha was reportedly organized to allow the government to appraise itself while refining its delivery roadmap.  Participants included the Executive, led by the President and his cabinet; the Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group; and the Council of Governors.  President’s Outsized Role and Unequal Engagement Indeed,…

Raila Amolo Odinga, who served as Kenya’s Prime Minister between 2008 and 2013, has declared his interest in bidding for the position of chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) to replace H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, whose term comes to an end this year.  The announcement has since animated Kenya’s discussions, with the majority expectedly viewing it through a political lens. Curiously, the loudest support has come from the government side.  The ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Amani National Congress (ANC), both of which are part of the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition, have thrown their weight behind Raila Odinga’s candidature.  Raila’s…

Recently, an American named Erik Prince called on the United States to ‘put the imperial hat back on’ and govern countries and regions that cannot govern themselves. On his radar is ‘pretty much all of Africa’. Simply put, Prince is calling for the recolonization of Africa since, in his view, ‘they are incapable of governing themselves.’ Prince served in the US military and is a co-founder of Blackwater. This private military mercenary is remembered for its role in Iraq following the US invasion in 2003. Even though Prince’s prescription may be considered too extreme, perhaps inconceivable in our time, his…

The Embakasi fire tragedy again exposed the entrenched dysfunctionalities that characterize our system. While the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) issued a statement indicating that it rejected three times the application by the responsible gas company to set up the plant in Embakasi, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) announced suspending four of its staff for irregularly issuing the company an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) license for the set-up of the same plant. How two government agencies could trigger diametrically opposite decisions should qualify as a puzzle, except not in Kenya. What should even be more puzzling is the…

Over the last few weeks, Kenya has hosted some elite security leaders from the United States. Midway through January, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, came calling, winning the attention of the Head of State. A few days later, the Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) visited his own, meeting the Kenyan defence leadership led by the Cabinet Secretary for Defence, Adan Duale, and the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), Major General Francis Ogola. Details of the meetings remain scanty, providing fertile ground for speculation. What is not in doubt, though, is…

For the wider East and Horn of Africa region, the start of the year 2024 is one to forget. It began worse than it ended. Its diversity has manifested more of a nightmarish curse than a majestic blessing. The recipe of division has been more pronounced than the ingredient of unity. In East Africa, there has been no containing of outbursts of pent-up emotions.  Rwanda-DRC conflict The binding objective of the East African Community (EAC) proved too weak in the face of acrimonious differences among the partner states. Persistent differences between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) show…