Kenya is once again flirting with constitutional amendments—a move full of promise and peril. With both the Senate and the National Assembly publishing amendment Bills in 2025, the country stands at a familiar, yet more consequential crossroads.
Of particular interest is the need to recapture the original intention of Kenya’s bicameral parliament. One must ask: is the current structure of Parliament truly serving the public with optimal effectiveness? The honest answer—however uncomfortable—is a resounding no.
One of the original intentions behind adopting a bicameral structure was to establish a kind of appellate hierarchy in the legislative process—an internal checking and balancing designed to refine the quality of laws passed and safeguard the interests of ordinary citizens.
In practice, the Senate’s ability to engage meaningfully with legislation from the National Assembly has been severely limited—its jurisdiction constrained to the point where it functions more as an observer than a true legislative counterbalance.
In other bicameral Parliaments, one House is given exclusive function. For instance, in the United States, the Senate has the exclusive duty of approving treaties before they are ratified. The Kenyan Senate, unlike the USA, has no exclusive legislative function.
All legislations from the Senate are subjected to approval by the National Assembly. There is a need to revisit the structure of our bicameral Parliament, and the Senate, more than ever, must rise to defend the spirit of the 2010 Constitution.
At the heart of this debate is a fundamental question: Do the current proposals enhance or erode the balance of power and the integrity of devolution? The answer lies in a close reading of both the intentions and implications of the proposed amendments, particularly the National Assembly’s Constitutional Amendment Bill No 4 of 2025. This Bill, which seeks to entrench the National Government Constituencies Development Fund into the constitution, is cloaked in populism but fundamentally flawed in principle.
The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 recognises constituencies as electoral units and not revenue allocation units. There are only two centres of executive implementation: the national and county levels. The National Assembly Bill also includes a thinly veiled bribe to the Senate – the Senate Oversight Fund – to silence opposition. This manoeuvre must be seen for what it is: a smokescreen.
The constitution envisioned a bicameral Parliament that is both representative and deliberative. The National Assembly was designed to represent the population-based constituencies, while the Senate was designed to safeguard the interests of counties and devolution. This balance has been steadily eroded, with the Senate reduced to a junior partner—too often sidelined or ignored on vital national matters.
This is exactly why a constitutional amendment offers a crucial opportunity: to restore and re-assert the Senate’s role in line with the original intention of the drafters of the constitution. The Senate must not be enticed by the promise of an oversight fund while the larger architecture of checks and balances is being dismantled. The NG-CDF has already faced legal questions regarding its constitutionality and its interference with the doctrine of separation of powers and functions between the national and county governments.
Instead, the Senate should champion a more visionary, comprehensive amendment agenda—that strengthens intergovernmental relations, clarifies legislative mandates between the two Houses, enhances fiscal accountability across both levels of government and ensures a more equitable allocation of resources. There is an honest need to treat the current constitutional amendment debate as a moment of national constitutional introspection.
The Senate must therefore reject the National Assembly’s ill-intentioned Bill in its entirety. A constitution is not a tool for political expediency. It is the bedrock of national governance.
The Senate’s legacy will be measured by how staunchly it defended the constitution and the devolution dream. In this moment, the Senate has the chance to reclaim its rightful place as a guardian of the counties’ interests and a partner in national development. To do so, it must refocus the amendment debate on addressing the systemic gaps that have plagued the bicameral parliament since its inception.
