#StandardSettingKE

5 days ago
3 min

Death sentence does not help reduce crime, do away with it

A new study offers new possibilities for Kenya’s 656 death row prisoners, prison reform and Kenya’s international credentials as a nation founded on principles of justice and human rights. The latest research builds on last year’s report that demonstrates that public will is sharply moving in favour of abolishing the death penalty. While hanging for capital offences remains on our statutes, nobody has been executed since 1987. In 2009, Kenya’s third President Mwai Kibaki powe

Jan 21
3 min

2022 KDHS study tells us more than sex

Social media platforms exploded with this week’s news that Kenyan men have on average 3 times more sexual partners than women. As netizens benchmark their personal experiences against the latest Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022, it is worth keeping in mind Oscar Wilde’s famous observation, everything about sex is not about sex, it is about power. While online discussion and headlines like “Embu new pills paradise, Migori men kings of rubber” aroused citizens’ attentio

Jan 14
3 min

Our new governors must rethink public health system to serve all

Recent global concerns with a new COVID-19 variant, new county health reforms thinking and the calling off a national health-workers strike suggest that rethinking the right to health is timely. Three years after the world’s attention on China and COVID-19, the year closed with another dangerous spike in China. The new #COVID19 variant (#XBB15) is another offshoot of the 2021 Omicron variant. This variant, while less virulent and dangerous than the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Del

Jan 7
3 min

Time to disrupt the normalisation of prejudice and pain in all our spaces

Gay rights activist Edwin Chiloba has been brutally murdered. Our opinions will filter his death as a hate-crime, grim murder or another example of a state that failed to protect its own citizens. Ultimately, only criminal investigators will pinpoint who and why Edwin was killed. The broader context however is not so vague. Kenya has centuries of discrimination and violence embedded in its soil. So much so, we tell our children, one of the three main colours in our flag honou

Jan 1, 2023
3 min

How did Kenya measure up against the Constitution in 2022?

As the sun set for the last time on 2022, 56 million Kenyans, 47 + 1 governments received their report card. How did the 59-year-old student Kenya perform against the standards contained in the Kenyan constitution? Despite a decade of laws, policies and experiences at national and county levels, student Kenya’s interest and confidence in public participation is waning. 4.5 million students called in sick rather than register to vote during the 2022 General Elections. A furthe

Dec 24, 2022
3 min

Beyond dust-storm of opinions on police reforms, we must get it right

Incoming Inspector General Japeth Koome whipped up his first dust storm. His and other public comments may indicate the possible direction policing could take next year. Interested state officers, human rights defenders and other members of the public can look past the dust by studying Kenya’s progress captured in the Common East African Policing Standards report released this week. Wajir residents will tell you the loose sand and dirt kicked up by dust storms blurs vision an

Dec 17, 2022
3 min

Social media giant Meta sued in a Kenyan court, again.

This Wednesday, two Ethiopian men successfully sued Meta Platforms Inc in a Nairobi High Court for failing to moderate malicious content repeatedly posted on FaceBook. The judgement could determine the way FaceBook and several social media platforms operate across the world. It is nearly two decades since the late President Mwai Kibaki mistakenly called FaceBook, “FatBook” in an official path-breaking speech that educated Kenyans on the internet. Last year alone, this column

Dec 10, 2022
3 min

Let's serious with public safety, law and order

Today marks 74 years since the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights was adopted. The enduring lesson for us all is, when one generation fails to promote and protect human rights it will always negatively impact the next generation. The other is that we must find new financial, multi-sectoral and inclusive ways to organize for our freedom. Freedom is now topical and an social obligation for the Kenya Kwanza Administration and opposition Azimio la Umoja. It means everythin

Dec 6, 2022
3 min

Let's interrupt gender violence and narratives that support it

The world is midway through the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The recent conviction of Moses Gatama Njoroge provides the clearest example why the annual awareness campaign is so important. Milimani magistrate Esther Kimulu sentenced Moses Njoroge to prison for five years without the option of a fine on December 1. The case, while largely forgotten by the public, relates to that first date that went horribly wrong. Njoroge’s sexual advances against Esther

Nov 25, 2022
3 min

End the war on Ukraine

A delegation of Ukrainian leaders was in town this week. Listening to their experiences over the last nine months, I wondered whether we have become too numbed by our own experiences as a continent to care enough. Led by Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archbishop Evstratiy Zorya, human rights activist Oleksandra Drik, Politics Professor Olexiy Haran and Chamber of Commerce Director Anna Liubmya, the delegation told harrowing stories of human rights abuses laced with examples of Ukr

Nov 20, 2022
3 min

CBC task-force must address state of disability rights in schools

With the 49-member Presidential Working Party on Education Reform completing its public consultations this month, it is time to look at the state of disability rights in our schools and places of learning. A reflection with Amnesty colleague Emily Maranga ahead of International Children's Day. Kenya has approximately 13 million children in our primary and secondary schools. While the education ministry has recorded roughly 200,000 students with disabilities, the real figure c

Nov 12, 2022
3 min

What difference could new Police Inspector General Japhet Koome make?

The fourth Police Inspector General of Kenya was sworn yesterday. As Japhet Koome assumes office, what might he find in his in-tray and which opportunities could he seize to deepen human rights based, professional policing and access to justice for all? Firstly, an admission. I attended and actively contributed to the vetting of the incoming Inspector General through a memorandum and petition offered by the Police Reforms Working Group. The petition posed a few inconvenient a

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