Political and Socio-Economic Transformation under a New Constitutional Dispensation: An Analysis of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution as a Transformative Constitution

Abstract

Kenya has laboured under the challenges of poverty, inequality and political as well as socio-economic marginalisation, with the result that the country has struggled to achieve sustainable development. These challenges contributed to the struggle for a new political as well as socio-economic emancipation, a struggle which culminated in the promulgation of a new Constitution on 27 August 2010. The new Constitution contains several mechanisms aimed at the transformation of Kenya’s political as well as socio-economic situation both in the public and private sphere with the objective of enhancing equality, human dignity, social justice and the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. This article undertakes an analysis of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution using the parameters of transformative constitutionalism, developed in relation to the 1996 South African Constitution, to determine whether the 2010 Kenyan Constitution can effectively be termed a transformative constitution. The article concludes that the 2010 Constitution has all the necessary features of a transformative constitution and can effectively be used by the courts and other sectors of society so as to achieve political as well as egalitarian socio-economic transformation in Kenya.