http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/581 2026-03-15T20:44:06Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1415 Chapter 1- Introduction Ambani, J Osogo; Kioko, Caroline Mahmood Mamdani’s Citizen and subject is a good starting point for conceptualising power and marginalisation in Africa generally and even Kenya specifically. This framework appreciates that the colonial project was both illegitimate and contradictory from the very beginning. It was illegitimate because it was imposed on the native populations. It was contradictory in the sense that its objects and means were bad even for its own existence. The challenge that faced the colonialists was how, as a foreign minority race, they could rule over native majority races but yet still extract resources and labour not just for the settler community but also for their economies back in Europe. The result was always a bifurcated state in which a small racial minority enjoyed privileged ‘citizenship’ status while the majority was mistreated as ‘subjects’. 1Colonial history in Africa generally and Kenya especially is one of state-sanctioned usurpations against the natives. Colonial policies of apartheid relegated native Africans to the reserves where marginalisation, discrimination and other violations of human rights were prevalent. Although the colonial project in Africa commenced after the French and American revolutions, the colonialists only applied the rights associated with these uprisings to the white minorities, the citizens. This privileged group, which, in Kenya’s context, inhabited fertile highlands and better-furnished urban areas, enjoyed the freedoms of assembly, association, expression, among others, and were gradually entitled to representation in the legislative bodies. On the other hand, the native Africans were not entitled to the above-mentioned rights. As subjects, the native Africans did not bear even critical rights like participation and representation until towards the end of the colonial epoch. Moreover, displacements, landlessness, police brutality, and poor infrastructure, among others, were some of the main highlights of life in the native reserves. Colonial power in the native reserves was, plainly speaking, authoritarian. Instead of rights, the colonial powers governed Africans through a modified system of customary law whose administrators, the chiefs, were under their total control and instruction. African customs only applied where they did not threaten colonial power and western civilisation. Native customs were modified to align with colonial values like patriarchy and the extractive objectives of the colonial state and its morality. Colonial policy and morality enhanced the marginalisation of women, youth, persons with disabilities (PWDs), rural populations and other minority groups. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1414 Devolution and the promise of democracy and inclusion: An evaluation of the first decade of county Introduction governments, 2013-2022 Thuo, Lucianna; Ambani, J Osogo Two variables preoccupy this entire study – decentralisation and inclusion. We hypothesise that there is a positive relationship between decentralisation and the inclusion of various groups; that the more we decentralise the more we attain inclusion. That the converse is also true: the more we centralise the more we marginalise. The conceptual basis for the historical relationship between decentralisation and inclusion in Kenya was addressed in Chapter 2 of this study. Chapter 3 discussed the first variable (decentralisation) in historical perspective, while Chapter 4 reviewed the second variable (inclusion) also historically. All the chapters above cover the trajectory of the respective variables from pre-colonial times to the first decade of devolution under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (2010 Constitution). What emerges clearly from the expositions are the struggles for decentralisation and inclusion by those on the outside, and efforts to congest more powers at the centre and to exclude the others by those on the inside. However, the clamour for decentralisation and inclusion won a major battlefront when the 2010 Constitution, which entrenched devolution as one of the overarching principles, was promulgated. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1413 Decentralisation of power in Kenya in Introduction historical perspective Mukaindo, Petronella Karimi; Ongoya, Elisha Z Kenya is run by a devolved system of government. This system was reached through historical processes by which the State itself evolved to become what it is today. An understanding of the origin, structure and effectiveness or otherwise of the extant devolved system demands some history. The purpose of this chapter is to restate this history while reflecting on the implication of the various historical happenings on the question of marginalisation, which is at the core of the research in this publication. The chapter explores the theme of decentralisation of government in Kenya since the colonial days. In so doing, the chapter captures the various phases through which Kenya’s governance structure has evolved; The pre-colonial society, the colonial State, and the postcolonial State. In each of these epochs, the chapter sets out the key historical, normative, policy, structural and administrative developments. The chapter also examines the dominant ideologies that informed the identified developments. It concomitantly reflects on the question of marginalisation as dealt with alongside these key developments, and addresses the historical socio-economic neglect of segments of the Kenyan society over time. The chapter also lays bare the appurtenant struggles. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1412 Marginalisation in Kenya in historical perspective (1963-2021): The starts, false starts and the last promise Thuo, Lucianna; Kioko, Caroline The African Peer Review Mechanism Country Review Mission (CRM) observed as follows in relation to marginalisation in Kenya: There exists in Kenya an asymmetric exclusion of different social groups, i.e., various groups have been excluded for different reasons and face different structural problems. It is not appropriate to paint with very broad-brush strokes when designing appropriate intervention or advocacy measures for affected populations. The major problem for disadvantaged groups seems to be the inadequacy of government resources required to bolster service delivery efforts. The inequitable allocation of resources to certain areas and sectors of society has also spawned systemic marginalisation and discrimination, which affects vulnerable groups disproportionately. Affirmative action is more appropriate for those groups that require the removal of structural barriers and the strengthening of policy tools and development inputs for those whose problems stem from inaccessibility of resources and infrastructure. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1411 Illegitimate contradictions: The construction of centralisation, exclusion and marginalisation in the Kenyan State Humphrey, Sipalla Power is fickle, they say. Its wielders, therefore, wield it fleetingly. It is both potent and fragile. How can something so abstract and intangible be responsible for so much tangibility, such real world effects? The choices flowing from power wielding create categories of being and knowledge. These ontologies and epistemologies define the existence of individuals, their communities, their nostalgic past and the hazy 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1373 The Role of Institutions in the Resolution of Election Disputes in Kenya Ongoya, Elisha Mechanisms for electoral disputes resolution are an integral part of the tests for free and fair elections in democratic set-ups. And yet, the efficacy of the mechanisms for dispute resolution is as much dependant on the normative superstructure as it is on the institutional infrastructure. j The interplay between ins t itutions to avoid conflict in jurisdictions is an important consideration in the architecture and de s ign of institutions for electoral disputes resolution. As the Kenyan e x periment of the past d e monstrates, a failure of the electorate to repose confidence in proper i nstitutions for electoral dispute resolution is a recipe for chaos and disaster. This centrali z e s e v e n more th e place of e lectoral disput e resolution institutions in a democracy . It is against the for e going background that this chapter interrogates the role of the various institutions in electoral disputes resolution in Kenya . This chapter examines the various provisions of the law establishing and vesting jurisdiction in the various institutions that play a role in the management and resolution of electoral disputes . The chapter also looks at the emerging jurisprudenc e of the courts and other institutions that have tried to give an interpretation to the relevant provisions of the law on the establishment and jurisdiction of these institutions . R e commendations for reforms are consequently made at the end of this chapter . 2013-10-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/1371 Towards an African professional history of international law: The life and work of Kéba Mbaye Sipalla, Humphrey Kéba Mbaye (1924-2007)2 was a Senegalese jurist who served with distinction in the Senegalese judiciary, the United Nations human rights system, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in ad hoc international tribunals, and in the Olympic movement.3 He was most notably the ‘inspirer and author of the preliminary draft’4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). He also led the drafting of important international legal instruments including the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA)5 legal framework, the Statute of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the LinasMarcoussis Peace Agreement. He served on international commissions on bioethics, labour law, and for the investigation of mass human rights violations in Yugoslavia, Southern Africa, and Palestine, among others. He helped mediate peace through conciliation first in the OAU structures of the 1980s, and later in the Ivorian peace process. He both campaigned against apartheid in the early 1980s and led South Africa’s readmission to the Olympic movement after the fall of apartheid. At home, he guided Senegal’s transition to multiparty politics in the early 1990s. 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z http://ir.kabarak.ac.ke/handle/123456789/767 African and Decolonization of state-religion policies Ambani, J. Osogo This book argues that a view has taken root in Africa, which equates state-secularism to the aggressive removal of religion from the public sphere or even state ambivalence towards religious affairs. This view arises from a misguided interpretation of the practice of state-secularism particularly in France, Turkey and the US, which understanding is ill-suited for the sub-Sahara Africa’s state-religion because the region boasts of at least three major religious traditions, African religion, Islam and Christianity, and blanket condemnation of public manifestation of religion or ambivalence towards it may offend the natural flourishing of this trinity and more. The contribution holds that most applications of state-secularism in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda favour the Christian faith, which during its tumultuous experiences in Europe survived the enlightenment, the reformation and like experiences socialised to co-exist with what are now called secular states. Additionally, due to the long history of Christendoms in Europe, Christian principles penetrated the colonial legal systems that were bequeathed to Africa at independence and the sustenance of the colonial legacy means that the Abrahamic faith has an upper hand in the state-religion relations’ contest. The obvious loser is African religion which has suffered major onslaughts since the colonial days. 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z