The Role of The Constitutional Implementation of Oversight Committee: has Parliament Abdicated responsibility in the Implementation of The Constitution?

Abstract

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya has been described as transformative in nature and is in its fifteenth year of implementation. The transformative nature of the Constitution must manifest itself through implementation because Constitution making, and Constitution building do not end with the adoption of the Constitution—they continue with the interpretation, application, and implementation of the Constitution through mechanisms such as policies and legislation. The framers of the Constitution provided in the 2010 Constitution a process of implementation of the Constitution with various institutions expressly and implicitly assigned specific roles to play. Parliament as a legislative and oversight institution was assigned a critical role to play in this process to implement the Constitution and oversee the consolidation of the new constitutional dispensation and transformation of the Kenyan society. One of the institutions expressly established by the constitution is a Parliamentary Select Committee known as the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) which is assigned critical responsibility to coordinate Parliament and other institutions responsible for the implementation of the Constitution to ensure transition from the centralized system to the devolved system of government and the social, economic and political transformation of the Kenyan society. This article posits that Parliament in general and this CIOC in particular have abdicated this responsibility. To demonstrate how Parliament seems to have abdicated responsibility, this essay focuses on the examination of this committee, its establishment, constitutional functions, and how it has performed since the promulgation of the Constitution. However, because the need for a Parliamentary Select Committee to oversee the implementation of the Constitution was informed by the critical role such committee played in the constitution-making process, the article begins with the examination of the historical role of the Parliamentary Select Committee in the Constitution-making process before zeroing in on the CIOC and its role in the implementation of the Constitution, and concluding with what needs to be done to rectify the situation.