The development of a new constitution was meant to redress some of the underlying governance challenges facing the Kenyan state. The risk of not addressing these governance challenges was manifested in the 2007/2008 post-election crisis. Indeed, in what was referred to as the Agenda Item Four (4), the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Initiative identified some of these challenges as negative ethnicity, regional imbalances, unemployment and class disparities.
As such, Article 10 of the current constitution, in a departure from the previous one, sets out the national values and principles of governance.2 Further, the Constitution sets the framework and timelines for a series of institutional and legal reforms to be realised through constitutional implementation. The objective is to consolidate the rule of law, democracy, human rights, transparency, accountability and good governance.
To meet this objective, the paper identifies broad interventions through which implementation of the Constitution is to be pursued, namely: developing enabling legislation (The Fifth Schedule identifies laws whose development is crucial to the full implementation of the Constitution), reviewing existing legislation, reforming existing institutions to make them responsive and aligned to the Constitution and setting up key institutions and new governance structures.
This paper discusses the progress in the implementation of the constitution with an emphasis ontransparency, leadershipandintegrityandelectoral, judicial and security provisions. In doing so, the paper provides an implementation progress matrix that focuses on leadership and integrity; accountability in leadership; transparency and openness; public participation; and reforms, including judicial and police reforms. Also, the paper has tabulated some of the existing legislation that will require amendments to bring it into conformity with thie Constitution as per Section 7(1) of the Sixth Schedule.
Other key issues discussed in this paper include the role of civil society in the implementation of the Constitution, the challenges in implementing the Constitution and existing strategies of constitutional implementation
There are numerous challenges facing the implementation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. Significant in this regard are divisive politics of the then grandcoalition, entrenchedimpunity, negativeethnicity and a political culture of persons seeking to preserve the old order and self-seeking political interests. Another prevailing challenge being experienced in a post 2013 election environment is that political contests between the Jubilee and Cord political party Coalitions have affected implementation, especially at parliamentary level. This is because since the Jubilee Coalition controls both Parliament and the Executive, parliamentary oversight on the executive has diminished to being a rubber stamp of the Executive. Certainly, superiority contests between the Senate and the National Assembly have hampered timely implementation of the constitution.
However, there still remain opportunities for its effective implementation. Joint efforts from not only Kenya’s leadership, but also civil society and the public can ensure that constitutional gains secured thus far are consolidated and that the pending legislative and institutional reforms are realised in the coming years. It is our hope that this paper contributes to this aspiration.