We, the People of Kenya

The Bonds, Benefits, and Burdens of our Citizenship

Abstract

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya declares in its preamble that it is a product of “We, the people of Kenya” and at Article 1 that the sovereign power rests on the people of Kenya. These provisions imply that there exists a singular identity among the holders of the Kenyan membership and an equality of status in the partaking of the benefits and burdens that accrue to that membership. This understanding resonates well with the very idea of citizenship, which envisages a universality or singularity of identity and equality of status among the citizenship holders within a given state. The question that arises is whether the theoretical idea of citizenship, which is also reflected in the aspiration of the 2010 Constitution, is, indeed, a reality in the Kenyan context or it is merely an illusion. This paper attempts to address this question by critically examining the citizenship framework operationalised under the 2010 Constitution.