Comrades power! Comrades power! Shots fired: Student activism, protests and the role of disruption as a communicative strategy in Africa

1. Introduction It comes with great sadness that I begin this article by mourning the death of my schoolmate. William Mayange, who went to Our Lady of Mercy Ringa Boys High School, was a third-year student at Maseno University at the time of his demise. He lost his life during the anti-government Azimio la Umoja […]

Rwanda: National memory and violence of forgetting a genocide

The violence of forgetting genocide is violent; as a psychological construct, forgetting inhuman acts leads to them gnawing at the individual conscience and a need to have them violently repressed within the individual. In contemporary Rwanda, the government attempts to keep the national memory of the genocide at the forefront of the story of the […]

Rwanda: National memory and violence of forgetting a genocide

During this tumultuous period, over a million people were slaughtered by Hutu extremists targeting the minority Tutsi. The events of that period highlighted the indefatigable capacity of humanity to commit unspeakable acts of destruction. But the 29th anniversary of the killings also illustrates the construction of national memory and the violence of forgetting genocide. The […]

The silent scourge: a call for outlawing marital rape in Kenya

Introduction Rape is defined as an unlawful sexual activity that involves engaging in sexual activity against the victim’s will by using force or the threat of using force, or with a person who is unable to give informed consent because they are a minor, have a mental health condition, are intoxicated, are unconscious, or are […]

Justifying gender equality in electoral politics:  is the quota system the solution?

Given that it has been argued that the main impediment to gender equality in electoral politics is patriarchal politics, most gender equality projects involve the implementation of gender quotas to increase the number of women leaders. Within the use of quotas to promote gender parity emerges the configuration of women as marginalized groups who require […]

Rethinking sexual and reproductive health rights in the context of climate change

By the mere fact that the pro-life and anti-abortion billboards were concentrated in Nairobi County, the capital city with a high rate of educated individuals, it would have been easier to buy the pro-adoption argument. Yet, it is this cynical deployment of “pro-adoption” to legitimize the shaming of abortion that blurs the substantive advancement of […]

Go hard or go home; a call for the re-examination of the death penalty rule in Kenya

After long court proceedings, the matter was recently settled where Leliman was sentenced to death while the other two police officers were sentenced to a term of 20 to 30 years in prison. 1.0.        Introduction Until the recent ruling of the Willie Kimani case, many Kenyans had forgotten or were unaware of the existence of […]

Jurisdictional challenges in holding social media companies liable for content moderation in Kenya: An analysis.

Justice Jacob Gakeri ruled that social media giant Meta can be sued locally, opening a new front for multinationals registered outside the country to face suits in Kenyan courts. The firm wanted to be removed from the case arguing that Kenyan courts do not have jurisdiction to determine the case. The social media firm argued […]