One of the dramatic moments of political history that comes to mind is the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as American President upon the latter’s assassination, was accused of abuse of office and violation of the Constitution arising from his decision to sack his Minister of War due to policy differences.

Six months ago, when newly re-elected Law Society of Kenya (LSK) chairman Eric Mutua informed me of his intention to run for a second term, my first reaction was surprise. I had not been aware, until then, that the law actually allowed a chairman to seek re-election after doing his traditional two-year term.

Felix Mwaura Gatundu is what one friend would call ‘an advocate non-advocate’. A paradox. An oxymoron. This week Felix highlighted what is wrong with the ongoing Law Society of Kenya (LSK) election campaigns.

A probe, according to the dictionary definition, is a long thin instrument used to conduct an intrusive search. As a verb, to probe means to search or examine intrusively.

When British lawmaker John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) penned his influential work, “On Liberty” (1859), he probably did not foresee how far the application of his philosophy would take the modern world. Mill was the son of a Scottish philosopher.

About the turn of the century, I attended two job interviews. One was in a leading audit firm and the other in a respected law firm.

Sometime in the 19th Century, somewhere in Europe, a busy town was separated from a poorer residential quarter by a river crossed by a footbridge built by the town authorities. Any person crossing the footbridge had to pay some money, say ten shillings, to cross one way or the other.

Wisdom is one of the greatest virtues in theology. St Bonaventure notably warned against, reading without repentance, knowledge without devotion, research without wonder, prudence without joy, work without piety, learning without love, intelligence without humility, study without grace and thought without wisdom.

Probably the most important judgment of 2013 is October’s appeal decision in Joseph Mwaura v Republic.

Soon after high school, I got into the habit of visiting a basketball court for casual Sunday sport. I was rather below the average height on the court, and though shorter players typically make good dribblers, the height disadvantage at the board easily resulted in an inferiority complex.

Inevitable’ is the fallacy of the intellectually dishonest. Or maybe it is the refuge of the intellectually lazy. Or sometimes the destination of false pragmatists.

If you only have a hammer, so the saying goes, every problem looks like a nail. Every crisis appears in need of a hammer.

In a 2008 Hollywood movie, 21, Kevin Spacey acts as a brilliant lecturer teaching some students how to make loads of money playing Blackjack in the casino. Early in the movie, Spacey asks his “non-linear equations” class a question, which he calls the “game-show host” problem.

In May 1787, James Madison arrived in Philadelphia for a constitutional convention.

A story is told of an aggressive businessman who wanted to teach his son a valuable lesson. And so he placed his young son on a cabinet and told him,

Tragedy often brings heroes with it. The greater the crisis, the greater its heroes. And because we yearn for heroes in moments of crisis, some are made heroes while undeserving of the accolade.

Unlike the Rome Statute of the ICC, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has 191 state parties, including all but four UN member states.

Unlike the Rome Statute of the ICC, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has 191 state parties, including all but four UN member states.

Anyone who works in the legal justice system gets to learn, sooner or later, that even the best judge is unable to attain a high standard of justice unless the other actors in the system have integrity, competence and efficiency.

A regular newspaper columnist can look back and trace their intellectual path on a particular topic over the years. In May 2010, while criticising Kenya’s draft constitution, I noted the danger of introducing international law as a direct source of law in Kenya without Parliamentary input.

Taxonomy, namely the classification of living things, is an area of biology that can be quite boring or extremely exciting, largely dependent on the teacher.

When Kenya’s first Constitution was three years old, it had already undergone significant transformation. Kenya obtained independence as a parliamentary democracy, with the Queen’s appointee, Governor Malcolm Macdonald, as head of state.

The annual conference of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) proved to be the intellectual and political centre for the debate on devolution this past week.

The LGBTI lobby is a threat to you, your family, your work and your society

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime

Six years ago, I read a copy of Caroline Elkins’ landmark book Britain’s Gulag