The year-old, who has been deputy prime minister, is a graduate of Amherst College in the United States. In , he was elected chairman of his hometown branch of the then ruling party KANU, paving the way for him to enter national politics. Nominated to parliament in , his career accelerated as Moi endorsed Kenyatta as his successor just a year later.
Despite these allegations, he won praise for his Economic Stimulus Programme as minister of finance, investing in food security and boosting entrepreneurship and innovation. He also made headlines around the world when he insisted that cabinet ministers and other officials give up their Mercedes government cars in favour of Volkswagen Passats.
Hundreds responded within hours in an exercise which was praised by tech-oriented politicos as extending inclusivity and empowering democracy. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us. AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing news and information items daily from over African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public.
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Please try again later. Tagged: Kenya East Africa Entertainment. All rights reserved. Western military elites have justified the illegal capture and killings of Muslim men from the Middle East suspected of working with groups like the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State. These are just the numbers documented by rights groups. Because of fear and the sensitivity surrounding the issue of terrorism and al-Shabaab, numerous cases go unreported.
In , thousands of residents in Garissa County were rounded up and many died in what came to be known as the Bula Karatasi Massacre. The Kenyan security agencies were responding to an incident where civil servants were gunned down in a bar in the Bula Karatasi neighborhoodneighbourhood.
In Wajir County, it is believed that over 5, men were killed in by the Kenyan army when it went in to disarm Somalis in the county following ethnic conflicts. These are just a few examples that demonstrate how Kenyan elites have been dealing with generations of Somalis from north-eastern counties. As I have argued before, Kenyan journalists based in Nairobi have cemented the culture of portraying northern Kenya as a region engulfed by conflict, with the result that no substantive or thematic coverage is undertaken.
With few journalists from this region working for the mainstream news media, and in the absence of correspondents on the ground to cover these acts of violence, the community has been left out of the national conversation. There were no avenues that could have been used to create awareness about the unique challenges faced by Kenyan citizens in the north.
This explains why the Somali community in the region is embracing social media platforms to not only push back against misrepresentations of their issues but also to prominently place their narratives in the national agenda.
The historical and contemporary injustices faced by communities in north-eastern Kenya have led them to embrace digital media. But it is also essential to note that a majority of Kenyans are unable to own smartphones or access the internet in order to be active participants in on-going debates on platforms like Twitter. Only 17 per cent of Kenyans use social media and as a result of this digital divide, most Kenyans access news through traditional media like radios and newspapers.
These traditional, mainstream mediums have failed to adequately advocate for the critical coverage of issues like the systematic abductions and killings of citizens in northern Kenya. There is a growing body of literature on how marginalized communities like African Americans in the US and Muslims in Europe use digital media to counter the predominant narratives constructed by the mainstream media. It is believed that over 5, men were killed by the Kenyan army in when it went in to disarm Somalis in the county following ethnic conflicts.
A classic example of the power arising from the intersection of marginalized publics and digital media is the BlackLivesMatter BLM movement. This group, which was created and organized by youthful online activists highlighting racial injustice in the US, remains impactful and has been successful in setting the agenda in the US and elsewhere. The killing of George Floyd in Minnesota in that ignited an explosion of protests from Minneapolis to Accra , demonstrates how digital media has the power to set the agenda for national and global discourses.
In Nigeria, the lack of critical coverage of campaigns such as the EndSARS movement prompted protesters and community leaders to take to social media platforms. These examples are testaments to the importance of social media for excluded citizens such as Kenyan Somalis. Human rights lawyer Abdinassir Adan was among the Twitter users who tirelessly advocated for the release of Abdiwahab. Our main aim is to create awareness and stand up against enforced disappearances and injustice [that are] contrary to the rule of law.
Adan shares the frustrations of many, pointing out that the limited and uncritical coverage of these abductions by the Kenyan mass media forces them to raise this awareness online.
Social media has rendered the hollow and the gibberish media useless. In a nutshell, we felt that digital media is more effective, and it easily helped us to achieve our goals. Judging by the reaction to the abduction of Abdiwahab, it is evident that marginalized communities in northern Kenya are systematically using social media to change the culture of news media production in Kenya. The result is that, as a primary agenda-setter, the Kenyan press has been forced to adopt the social media agenda created by the public and make it part of the national agenda.
While this is a good opportunity for minority communities across Kenya, it is important to address the question of whether this is good in the long run. Most of the citizens in these northern counties still receive their news through traditional media, particularly community radios. While young people like Adan, who mostly reside in urban areas, can afford smartphones and have internet access to push back against government discrimination and media bias, a large proportion of the population of these counties is left out.
Moreover, by their very nature, these platforms have helped advance free speech, prompting some African governments to try to curb the freedom of expression among citizens by introducing high taxes on digital activity and passing restrictive legislation. Further, online platforms have also been infiltrated by users who spread propaganda on behalf of the state. This can have a negative impact on marginalized communities that depend on these platforms to share their challenges.
As a primary agenda-setter, the Kenya press has been forced to adopt the social media agenda created by the public and make it part of the national agenda. The mainstream media should not remain passive, waiting for social media to highlight cases of human rights abuses against the people of northern Kenya.
The demonstrated systematic pattern of targeting this group by government security agencies is enough to warrant a comprehensive, critical coverage of this important issue. The Twitter conversations are also a reminder to Kenyan security agencies that, unlike the past, neglected citizens like those from north-eastern Kenya are now armed with digital platforms to counter-narratives constructed by the political and media elites. In an age where information is shared within seconds, it is time the Kenyan government drops its abusive counter-terrorism tactics and systematically investigates cases like that of Abdiwahab.
The Kenyan government and mass media need to treat Kenyans equally and to apply the law equally to citizens accused of any crimes. When communities in northern Kenya are accorded the same treatment as others across the country, then perhaps people like Adan will not be forced to use Western-owned digital media tools to highlight the challenges faced by Kenyans like him. The Constitution requires that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.
Article , which provides for the appointment of Kadhis, does not specify their gender. Yet the constitution is absent in the intra-Muslim discussions on the appointment of female Kadhis. Kadhi courts are arguably the oldest judicial institution in Kenya, being the judicial system prevailing in the Sultanate of Zanzibar that controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast. In the agreement between Prime Minister Muhammad Shamte of Zanzibar and President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, the coastal strip was brought within the territorial jurisdiction of Kenya.
In exchange, the Kenyan government would guarantee the preservation the Muslim religion and its institutions, courts, officers, schools, lands and the Arabic language within the new state. Kadhi courts have thus been an integral part of the judiciary since pre-colonial times and were the focus of fierce contestations during the constitutional review process in Kenya.
After independence, Kadhis were also appointed from other non-coastal communities, notably the Somali. Following the promulgation of the constitution, Kadhi courts now reflect the face of Kenya. Yet the gender composition of the courts remains unresolved, and it has become a topic of debate in the last few months.
It is not clear what has sparked the recent debates, but the impending retirement of the current Chief Kadhi, Hon. Ahmed Muhdhar, must have animated discussions among the various interest groups over the possibility of appointing a Chief Kadhi of non-Arab descent and the appointment of female Kadhis, both of which are unprecedented in Kenyan legal history.
The women Kadhis discussion only came to the fore after The Standard published an article asking whether the time was ripe for a female Kadhi. Another piece followed in The Nation.
Aden Duale, weighed in on the question while addressing a gathering. He came out strongly in opposition to the appointment of women Kadhis. Duale wields immense authority among the Muslims of northern Kenya and his comments generated debate within the Muslim social spaces. I followed the debates closely and actively participated in some of the discussions, especially on Facebook.
I documented some of the comments, followed almost every discussion on social media , on television and in the Friday Khutba sermons such as those by Sheikh Feisal Al—Amoody of Malindi and Ibrahim Lethome of Jamia Mosque Nairobi. Various sheikhs also commented on the debate in their darsas mosque lessons , notably Al-Sayyid Ahmad Ahmad Badaway, aka Mwenye Baba, who is regarded by the Muslim faithful as one of the foremost religious authorities.
The Chief Justice, a known crusader for equality and human rights, openly backed the appointment of women to serve as Kadhis.
Both strongly objected to such appointments. They occasionally used the Friday sermons to teach and remind Muslims of the position of Islamic jurisprudence on the appointment of female Kadhis.
Sheikh Bahero of Bakarani Mosque, Mombasa, for example, dedicated khutba after khutba to this issue. The latest debates have seen the two organizations take a measured approach while KEMNAC has taken centre stage in shaping the discourse. Perhaps the most eloquent opposition to the appointment of female Kadhis is from Hon. We will not listen to what the NGOs will tell us. We will not listen to what government will tell us. We will not listen to what Western countries and powers will tell us.
Hii ingine ya Kenya inakuja second This other one of Kenya comes second. We will not accept a woman to be a Kadhi.
Wakati wa nikaah, umeona mwanamke huko? During marriage solemnization, do you see a woman there? Islam has given the roles women can perform and the roles they cannot achieve.
Msijaribu kuweka mkono yenu katika do not try to interfere in how Islam is run in this country, the same way we will not allow you to run the Christian faith. We must leave it to the bishops. We must respect religious leaders kama nyinyi mnataka hii Kenya ikuwe nchi nzuri If you want Kenya to be a nice country. Such a speech conjures up images of past contestations over the inclusion of Kadhi courts in the constitution and raises questions as to whether the debate was concluded.
Even though the Christian clergy who vehemently opposed the inclusion of the Kadhi courts in the constitution have moved on, some of the fears they raised at the time now seem to have caught up with Muslims. Furthermore, in the fourteen centuries of Islamic history no woman has been appointed to the position of judge Kadhi. Then there is the Hadith that says a woman is deficient in intellect and religiosity, which is taken to warrant her disqualification from holding such an important office.
A majority of Muslim exegetes and jurists in the pre-modern era took to these arguments as a restatement of the law on this particular question: Women should obey their husbands, stay at home, and have no authority over men. Another class of jurists has provided interpretations that seem more gender-egalitarian and have used historical, logical, textual and contextual nuances in the explanation of the texts relied upon by the first strand of jurists. All the verses and Hadith relevant to the question of female Kadhis are analysed in their two works using exegetical, hermeneutical and comparative perspectives.
Fadel uses tools within the philosophy of Islamic jurisprudence to argue that appointing women as judges in Kadhi courts is possible even without resorting to extraneous sources of law for justification. On the other hand, Hashim uses both historical and comparative law approaches to answer this question while situating it within the immediate Kenyan context.
This work documents the practice of appointing Muslim women in Muslim majority countries to be judges, and even more specifically, Sharia court judges who are the equivalent of Kadhis. These countries include Malaysia, Pakistan, Palestine and Indonesia. Most of these countries are, like Kenya, commonwealth-common law jurisdictions with a rich Islamic heritage and a robust jurisprudence.
Islamic law forms part of its basic structure and can provide parameters for consideration in Kenya.
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