5. Legislative Policymaking in Kenya

This chapter analyses the development of legislatures in Kenya with a focus on their four core functions: law-making, oversight, representation, and constituent services. It highlights some of the unique aspects of legislatures in Africa and places the Kenyan development in comparative perspective, arguing like Barkan (2009) that Kenya has progressed more than other African countries. These achievements notwithstanding more still need to be done to strengthen the role of the legislative bodies at both national and county levels, especially in their relations with the executive and its bureaucracy. The 2010 Constitution of Kenya has raised the bar of what to expect of political actors in the country. Notably, legislators must strike a better balance in performing their functions making sure that the constituency service does not overshadow the more challenging collective action needed in the legislature to make laws, exercise oversight, and represent people. At the sub-national level, there is a question of how to reconcile the role that Constituency Development Funds play in allocating national resources when there is now already a functional devolution of local development funds to the county level.