May. 5 | BY NIAMH BRANNIGAN
Let’s move from schooling to learning. That’s one of the key messages I took away from this excellent report from the Center for Global Development, which presents empirical evidence to support a suspicion that many of us working in education already harbour – that the gap between schooling and actual learning in developing countries is growing. The report, which presents the findings from a series of studies that tracked changes in student skills per year of schooling in South Asia and Africa (including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), finds that:
“Children are learning so little from each year of instruction that the completion of even basic schooling leaves children lacking necessary skills.”
The report makes liberal use of words like ‘shocking’ and ‘stark’ to describe student mastery against curricular...
May. 4 | BY ROSELYNE M. KIRAGU AND MACHARIA NGINYO
It is great news that Kenya struck oil and we, the citizens, should be thankful to the deities that were responsible for this blessing that has befallen our great nation. It is now all up to us, ostensibly! Given this unexpected yet timely finding, is Kenya at a crossroad or not? Do we wait for the black gold or do we go for the multiplier effect?
As ordinary citizens, my co-author, an IT sales professional, and myself, a financial risk management professional, we’ve recently been trying to understand the predicament of Kenya’s uncontrolled inflation. As we grapple to understand the inflation assumptions stipulated in the Kenya Policies for Prosperity, we’re inevitably led to contemplate what Kenya’s oil ‘strike’ would mean to Kenya’s fiscal policy and macroeconomic management....
May. 3 | D. BRUCE WHARTON
Information is life. People cannot make a living, hold their governments accountable, or educate their children without a healthy supply of free- flowing information. Citizens need accurate, timely, independent news they can trust. So do businesses and markets… and governments.
Media freedom keeps societies and economies vibrant, energetic, and healthy. When the free flow of news and information is cut off, individuals suffer. Societies and economies suffer.
Media freedom is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Leadership of the media – whether for...
May. 2 | BY MOSES CHELANGA
“The Board has emphatically assured the parties to the vetting process that the Board will not usurp the role of Appellate Court” ~ Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board
Vetting of judicial officers and its surprises was not unexpected. By a 38 page determination and 16 page dissenting determination, the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board in discharge of its solemn statutory mandate effectively declared that four out of the nine Court of Appeal Judges with an aggregate judicial experience of about 150 years are unsuitable to continue in service. The outcome of the first determination of the vetting board has received public support.
I am not an anti-vetting evangelist but I beg to differ with the vetting board on three issues which are potential minefields and irreversible errors. I call them the three mortal sins...
Apr. 30 | BY JUAN SOMAVIA
Tens of thousands of people around the world are taking to the streets today to mark May 1st. What else is new? Well, plenty.
The continuing economic crisis is hitting workers hardest. It also highlights how the macroeconomic policies of the past decades have downgraded the meaning of decent work.
The current growth model considers work as a production cost that must be as low as possible in order to raise competitiveness and profits. Workers are seen as being consumers of all sorts of loans rather than as having a legitimate share through wages in the wealth they contribute to create. Certainly a vision where capital has the upper-hand.
Lost in translation is the fact that quality work is a source of personal dignity, family stability, peace in the community and, certainly, a source of credibility for democratic governance....
Apr. 25 | JONATHAN S. GRATION
Malaria has afflicted people for centuries, detrimentally affecting not only health, but also impeding educational achievement, worker productivity, and long-term economic development.
It was estimated in 2007 that globally, malaria kills nearly a million people each year, with most of these deaths occurring in Africa in children under the age of five.
The disease places a heavy burden on individual families and national health systems. Because most malaria transmission occurs in rural areas, the greatest burden of the disease usually falls on low income families with limited access to health care. The cost to the continent in lost productivity is nearly Sh996 billion ($12 billion) a year.
As we observe World Malaria Day on April 25, it is encouraging to note that substantial progress has been made in delivering malaria...
Apr. 24 | SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. MWAI KIBAKI, CGH, MP, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS SPECIAL SITTING OF THE TENTH PARLIAMENT AT PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, TUESDAY 24TH APRIL, 2012
Mr Speaker,
Honourable members
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to join you during this special sitting of Parliament, which comes after a short, well deserved break.
During the break, I trust that my fellow legislators engaged constructively with their constituents, expounded on Government policies and sought wananchi’s views on the forthcoming agenda before this House.
In the last Session, Members of this August House were able to debate and pass crucial bills. As we commence this Session, we have a huge task ahead and I call upon each one of us to work extra...
Apr. 23 | WOLFGANG FENGLER
Can Africa claim the 21st century? When the World Bank’s Africa department published this book in April 2000, most observers were doubtful that African countries would ever be in a position to become emerging markets.
That year, The Economist called Africa “The hopeless continent” and global attention was focused mainly on Africa’s problems: HIV/Aids in Southern Africa; the relentless war in Somalia; and, droughts in the Sahel – which gave the pessimists plenty of ammunition.
But over the last several years, something remarkable has happened: Africa’s fragile and conflict-affected countries remain a major development challenge, but besides these, a Stable Africa has emerged. Most of this Stable Africa has experienced continued high growth for a decade, and major improvements in social indicators.
Africa...
