Constitutional Review and Referendums in Kenya

Abstract

In 2005 the Kenya constitutional referendum failed. This led to a crisis in government which culminated in postelection violence in 2007. In 2008 the new power-sharing agreement re-started a constitutional process, but this time a Committee of Experts was engaged and citizen involvement was smaller. The Committee of Experts presented a harmonised draft which again was converted by government. It included US-style presidentialism with a number of checks and balances. The subsequent referendum in 2010 was successful. The Kenya constitutional process gives important insight for constitutional engineering as well as for confl ict resolution in other African countries, such as Zimbabwe, as well as globally.