Katiba Day: Rights group jolts parliament over weak oversight
Rights groups have criticised Parliament for failing to play its watchdog role as the country marked its first-ever Katiba Day.
Speaking at the Democracy and Digital Innovation Conference 2025 on Wednesday, August 27, the Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Eric Mukoya, said Kenyans must reflect on the promises of the 2010 Constitution and question how far the country has strayed.
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“Fifteen years ago, on the 27th of August 2010, our nation stood at the edge of history. In one resounding moment, after decades of struggle, pain, and sacrifice, we proclaimed to ourselves and to the world that Kenya would be governed under a new social contract, a constitution that promised to heal the wounds of our past and chart a path towards a just, equitable, and democratic society,” he said.
Mukoya added that the 2010 Constitution was meant to cure poor leadership and governance, but instead Kenyans ended up with leaders who have ignored integrity and the values of leadership.
“In the promise, we sought to cure poor leadership and governance. But what did we get? Legislators and the Executive, save for a few, who pay no respect to integrity and tenets of leadership. Heads of institutions whose fidelity to Article 10 is unbelievably contemptuous. Services serving tokenism, opportunities driven by patronage and anchored on nepotism. We birthed new marginalisation,” he said.
Mukoya criticised the practice of recycling election losers and political allies into government positions, saying it undermines the will of the people.
“We have recycled election losers and other political nemesis into executive positions of power, undermining critical decisions of the electorate, an expense so annoying and excruciating,” he said.
He argued that the principle of separation of powers, which was meant to guarantee checks and balances, has been deeply undermined. Instead of an independent judiciary, the courts are constantly subjected to threats and undue political pressure.
Political favors
Parliament, which was envisioned as a representative and ideological institution, Mukoya said, has largely abandoned its role, with members trading their values and manifestos for political favours, financial gain, and blind loyalty. The executive, on its part, has entrenched itself in the capture of oversight and accountability institutions, operating with impunity behind closed doors while projecting arrogance in public forums. The cumulative effect, he observed, is a governance culture that disregards accountability and reduces citizens’ concerns to a dismissive attitude of “what can you do about it?”
“In the promise, we sought to make a good separation of powers. But what did we get? A judiciary that is constantly threatened and revisited in more ways than one. A parliament whose members have sold their ideological philosophies, if any, and manifestos, if any, to blatant sycophancy, financial favours and political powers. Judas Iscariot continues to live with us. An executive who thrives in the capture of strategic oversight and accountability bodies, within the beauty of boardroom impunity and roadside bravado. In this side of the world, it is as if they say Uta-Du?” he posed.
He further faulted the Executive for targeting constitutional commissions.
“An executive that threatens and defunds Independent Offices and Constitutional Commissions, making a joke of the Bill of Rights,” Mukoya said.
President William Ruto had on Tuesday officially declared August 27 as Katiba Day to be observed annually. He said the day will not be a public holiday but will be marked through civic education activities organised by government institutions, schools, counties, the three arms of government, and Kenya’s missions abroad.
Katiba Day comes 15 years after the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, a charter that was celebrated as a turning point in the country’s governance.
