25/09/2024
In days gone by, it was rare to hear that a Statute or even a regulation had been declared unconstitutional. Of late however, the declaration of statutes as unconstitutional by the High Court is so commonplace that it has become the norm. According to a compilation done by the Kenya Law Reports at https://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/index.php?id=8662 more than 80 provisions of the law have since been declared unconstitutional. These do not include the recently pronounced decisions on the Privatization Act and Finance Act 2023. The main reason cited has been lack of public participation. The trend is worrying and it is high time that Parliament considers how it passes Bills. As a matter of fact, even private entities are having their instruments declared unconstitutional. For instance, Justice Rika of the Employment and Labour Relations Court Nairobi about 4 days ago in Mark Ngugi Mwaura Vs. G4S recently declared manuals prohibiting office romance as unconstitutional.