Does the midnight detention, interrogation, and dawn deportation of a senior staff member from one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations signal an early tactic in the Kenyan government’s playbook for the 2027 General Elections? Last week’s column explored the use of INTERPOL red notices to restrict cross-border movement. One day later, Brian Kagoro, Managing…
Workplace sexual harassment is an abuse of power that violates bodily autonomy, dignity, and equality. Across sectors, young professionals, junior staff, interns, and those employed within the informal sector endure workplace sexual harassment in silence. Many never report, and those who do find their complaints are processed as human resources issues rather than criminal matters. This institutional separation…
Let’s be honest. When people hear ‘human rights ,’ they don’t immediately think ‘cool.’ They think it’s serious. They think professional. They think of lawyers or law students. They think policy heavy. They think formal. Often, we forget that human rights organizations exist to protect the rights and dignity of everyone, regardless of their background. To achieve a just world, we must create space for the involvement of all, the…
After seven months of silence since his July 2025 abduction, political activist Mwabili Mwagodi returned to the headlines this week. His court arraignment, followed two days later by the full acquittal of university student David Oaga Mokaya, shines a stronger spotlight on the misuse of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act and of the international…
This column is more personal than usual. This week’s Commission on Administrative Justice (Ombudsman) ruling in the case of Coldstone Investment Ltd. Vs. Khaleej Towers Ltd. created a buzz in my home and several neighbourhoods negatively impacted by building and planning violations. When my family moved into a two-storey Kilimani home with a small garden, we were surrounded by three family bungalows, mature trees, sunlight, and the sounds of birds. Fifteen years later, we are boxed…
I recently visited an Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) county and spoke with a teacher from a day secondary school. What I experienced will forever be ingrained in my memory. I wondered how and why the only secondary school in a sub-county would have a dismal performance with a mean score below 3 in the…
The phrase “family values” has been the subject of vexed and emotive debates in Kenya, Africa, and globally. A curious inquiry into its origins reveals a nexus among moral standards, social structural order, religious beliefs, and economics. A scan of its evolution in the twentieth century depicts individuals and groups rushing to rectify the deterioration of morals,…
After months of seemingly endless waiting, the Gender‑Based Violence Technical Working Group’s report has finally reached the Presidency. What exactly have they proposed, and how do we ensure those recommendations translate into real action? Last November, this column reminded both the Deputy President and the President that the Working Group’s 194-page report had been lying…
While progress seems limited in many parts of the world, this year’s Data Privacy Conference demonstrated Kenya’s growing maturity in digital governance. Two areas emerged as needing our attention: data governance in the security sector and election management. One of Kenya’s youngest independent offices, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, brought together over 100 leaders from state, corporate, academic, and…
Privacy is often dismissed as a concern for those with “something to hide.” Yet in Kenya today, the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 31 of the 2010 Constitution is under unprecedented strain, not because citizens are engaged in wrongdoing, but because surveillance is quietly becoming normalized. Digital surveillance refers to the use of technology…
The U.S. government’s forceful abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores in January read like the plot of a political thriller. While public resignation may have replaced initial shock and disbelief, that incident dominated international policy debate this week. At least 150 US military aircraft were involved in multiple bombings across Caracas. Scores of people were killed, and civilian and military infrastructure were destroyed. The subject of the attack, the forcible capture of the President and…
Listen to the audio version Justice for the people of Owino Uhuru comes up once again in the Mombasa Environment and Land Court on 19th January 2026. It has been 12 years since Metal Refinery (EPZ) Ltd was closed after toxic lead poisoning changed the lives of this Changamwe community forever. What is at stake…