Strathmore Law Review

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Browsing Strathmore Law Review by Subject "Customary Law"

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    Application of African customary law: tracing its degradation and analysing the challenges it confronts
    (Strathmore University Press, 2016-01) Owino, Lisa
    Historically, African customary law has occupied the lower rungs of the legal ladder, often being set aside for more formal laws. This is primarily due to the introduction of western and religious legal systems through the exploration of western nations into Africa, missionary activity and, subsequently, colonisation. However, African countries – including Kenya – are making an effort to give due recognition to customary law. This paper discusses the steady degradation of customary law from the colonial period to the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 where there are attempts to resuscitate its application, it also discusses the challenges that the courts may face in this application of customary law today and possible solutions to these challenges.
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    The wretched African traditionalists in Kenya : the challenges and prospects of customary law in the new constitutional era
    (Strathmore University Press, 2016-01) Ambani, Osogo J .
    The modern African judge will be the first to acknowledge that, in many senses, the problems faced by British judges in colonial Africa have not vanished. Almost one hundred percent of the African judiciary is now African. But even though there is no longer the gross disparity of national origin between a judge and his community, a judge often does not come from the particular locality whose ethnic law he is administering. A part from this ethnic question, there is an enormous educational and cultural gap between a senior judge with a western education and the ordinary families he may deal with. Thus, the judicial system may have moved from a problem of race and ethnicity to one of class.