What are the organs (bodies) of the government?
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Answer:
Organs Of Government
By J.B.Ojwang Professor of Law & Dean Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi
15-09-2001
1. Introduction
A Constitution establishes the regulatory framework for political activity and the governance process in a country. One of the things it does it to establish organs of government, define their functions and specify their powers for the discharge of these functions.
Experience from all over the world, and from time immemorial has taught that three particular organs of government are the most basic. These are: the Executive; (b) the Legislature; and (c) the Judiciary. These organs correspond to the vital and most basic governance functions, namely (and respectively), (i) the conduct of policy and administration; (ii) the making or repealing or amendment of the governing laws; and (iii) the adjudication of conflicts that arise while the laws of the land are being implemented through executive and administrative decision-making or action.
Although all Constitutions will provide for the three organs, their functions and powers, the Constitutions of different countries thereafter take different approaches, as some may go further and provide for additional governance -related organs. For example, the Ugandan Constitution provides for a further constitutional organ, known as the Inspector-General of Government, as does that of Tanzania , which provides for the Permanent Commission of Inquiry - both being nomenclature describing the Ombudsman institution.
The current Constitution limits itself to the three basic organs of government. In this paper we consider the broad outlines of these organs of government.
2. The Executive Organ
The Executive under the Kenya Constitution started off with a dual character, under the Independence Constitution in 1963. The day-to-day operation of government was conducted under the direction of a Prime Minister, who was the leader in Parliament of the political party with the largest number of seats in the house. The more occasional, symbolic and constitutional acts of government, such as formally naming the Prime Minister, proroguing or dissolving Parliament, were conducted by the Governor-General, representing the Queen of England, who operated in the capacity of Head of State.
The Executive organ was a diverse entity with a clear scope for checks-and-
balances. This feature, however, was taken away with the inauguration of Republican status on December 12, 1964. The advent of the Presidency severed the political link between Kenya and Her Majesty the Queen's Government in the United Kingdom. Henceforth, the Executive of the Kenyan State consisted solely in the President, who was his own Prime Minister while in his other capacity, he was the Head of State and Commander-in-
Chief of the Armed Forces. An unqualified monolithic structure was thus installed upon the constitutional system.
If this monolithicism was at first essentially instrumental, it was to be confirmed in place, firstly by the changed politics that brought the single party system, and then by a series of amendments that enhanced and consolidated the executive powers of the President and gave him the upper hand in his interplays with the Legislature. In the few years following the establishment of Republican status, all the main elements of diversity in the constitutional system, such as the semi-federalist structure and the bicameral Parliamentary system, were removed and the outstanding and greatly empowered profile of the President, became the main landmark of the constitutional order.
Those who have paid keen attention to the more recent political changes in Kenya will readily recognize that, it is precisely the monolithicism of the immediate post-independence years that prompted the public to initiate clamours for change, leading to the re-introduction of the multi-party system and a re-dedication to the principle of pluralism.
Against this experience, it may now be regarded as a basically valid proposition that the people of Kenya are likely to support enlargement of the number of participating agencies in the stall of the Executive.