Kenya ‘a beacon of democracy’ in East Africa, says expert
The government has started a comprehensive review of how Kenya is governed, with key issues including the judiciary, checks and balances, and the role of the security services, academics and think-tanks have warned.
The Kenyan government has already announced plans to scrap electoral mechanisms and introduce a largely self-governing model of governance
They say the government should be “strengthening the judicial system, checks and balances, and the role of the security services”.
These are some of the key recommendations made in a report issued by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), which is a political organisation representing Kenyan intellectuals.
The report also criticizes a number of other policies, and calls on the government to review its policy on land-tenure, human rights and the management of natural resources.
The government has already announced plans to scrap electoral mechanisms and introduce a largely self-governing model of governance, the report says.
For the first time, there is growing consensus among academics, think-tanks and civil society groups who want an overhaul to the political system in Kenya.
As a result, many people and NGOs have called on the government to abandon its pro-natalist and pro-business policies. Others have called for the return to Kenya of the Nairobi Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that ended the long occupation of land in Kenya by the Mau Mau rebels during the colonial period.
The government should be “strengthening the judicial system, checks and balances, and the role of the security services”, the CIS report says.
An independent judiciary
The Kenyan government has been accused of using the criminal justice system to intimidate and intimidate opposition politicians.
In May, opposition leader Raila Odinga’s wife was attacked during a police raid on her home, and Odinga said he felt “frequent and sustained death threats”.