Kenya dispatch: democracy champion Raila Odinga laid to rest among tears and tributes
The sun had barely risen on October 15 when Kenya awoke to the shocking news that its veteran leader, Raila Odinga, had died while in India at the age of 80. According to hospital officials in Kerala, he suffered a heart attack during a morning walk. From that moment, the country entered mourning—not just for [...]
Voices from around the world: global dispatch on press freedom under pressure
Edited by Alanah Vargas | JURIST Staff, US Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees everyone the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information through any media without interference. This global dispatch, contributed by correspondents around the world, examines key challenges and developments [...]
US indicts Indian billionaire and associates for concealing bribery scheme from US investors
A New York federal court on Thursday indicted Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives of his renewable energy company. The charges include conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud in a multi-billion USD scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and [...]
Aynsley Genga is JURIST’s senior Kenya correspondent. She files this report from Nairobi. It’s still Wednesday 26th June, and so much has already happened in Kenya since the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations began last Tuesday. We have had civilians being kidnapped, protesters being killed, residents of the Githurai district of Nairobi being massacred in the middle [...]
David Odero is a law student at Kisii University and a special correspondent for JURIST. He filed this dispatch from Nairobi. Sleep is for the weak and the wicked, as the saying goes, and this sentiment never made more sense than on the morning of Tuesday, 25 June. Individuals alleged to be members of the [...]
Democratic Republic of Congo journalist Stanis Bujakera was freed from prison Tuesday after serving a six-month jail sentence for forgery and spreading false rumors for an article about a government intelligence agency’s involvement in the death of political opposition candidate Cherubin Okende. Bujakera’s lawyer Yana Ndikulu announced the news in a statement to the journalist’s employer [...]
No sooner had the dust of 2023 settled than the leader of the executive arm of Kenya’s government launched missiles of subliminal jibes aimed at what he termed “a tyrannical and corrupt judiciary.” President William Ruto—a product of the Kenyan Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2022 Presidential Petition—averred that some judges were bent on sabotaging [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested and charged Karrem Nasr, an American citizen residing in Egypt since July 2023, for attempting to provide support to al-Shabaab. Nasr, a resident of New Jersey, traveled to Kenya with the intent to join al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on October [...]
Stephen Rapp, an American lawyer and diplomat, has been a leading figure in international criminal law and human rights. He was appointed as the US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues in 2009, overseeing investigations and prosecutions of war criminals worldwide. Rapp’s commitment to justice and ending impunity was evident during his tenure, supporting [...]
Why do coups d’état happen? Is it that bad leadership pushes people to their boiling points, compelling them to take matters into their own hands? Or is it a lack of adequate preventative laws? Do external factors play a role? And in Africa specifically, how much of an impact does history tend to have? Moreover, [...]
