Constitutional and Legal Framework for the Enforcement of County Laws in Kenya. Challenges and Proposals

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, , language: English, abstract: This paper discusses the Kenyan constitutional and legal framework for the enforcement of county laws. It exposes the inadequacy of the legal and institutional framework as the root of all other challenges experienced in the enforcement of county laws in Kenya. These challenges include lack of capacity for the enforcement of county laws by the counties, corruption menace, lack of a uniform code of conduct for county askaris, the novelty of devolution to county askaris and the general public and the lack of county courts to resolve disputes involving counties and enforce county laws. Proposals for addressing these challenges are given stressing on the need to enact legislation to provide for the legal and institutional framework for the enforcement of county laws in Kenya. This is important because one of the ways through which the objects of devolution can be achieved in Kenya is through the effective and efficient enforcement of county laws and regulations.

Kenya adopted a new Constitution on 27th August 2010 with devolution1 being one of its most transformative aspects. Devolution was a good solution to the problems of marginalization, inadequate service delivery and regional disparities in development which was associated with the highly centralized system of government. With devolution, two levels of government were created: national and county governments.