This journal is dedicated to advancing scholarship on the reform and practice of family law in Kenya. It brings together analyses of statutory and case law developments, including succession, marriage and divorce, matrimonial property, surrogacy, child marriage, Islamic family law, burial disputes, and responses to gender-based violence. By engaging with constitutional principles, judicial pronouncements, and community-level dynamics, the journal offers a platform for debate and reflection on how law can better promote justice, equality, and the protection of vulnerable groups within the family and society.

This journal provides a platform for critical analysis of contemporary legal, social, and cultural issues in Kenya and the wider East African region. It explores the intersections between law, society, and governance, with contributions addressing the impact of COVID-19 on family law, the evolving concept of personhood and women’s rights, the role of customary law in informal justice systems, media performance during the pandemic, and the significance of intellectual property in regional integration. By bringing together diverse voices from scholars and practitioners, the journal offers nuanced perspectives on how law interacts with pressing societal challenges and emerging trends.

The East African Law Journal is a peer-reviewed publication that provides a platform for scholarly engagement with contemporary legal and social issues in Africa. This Special Issue on Gender, Equality, and Human Rights brings together leading voices to examine questions of family law, property rights, customary law, women’s participation in peace processes, and broader debates on justice and equality. Through critical analysis and diverse perspectives, the journal advances dialogue on how law shapes, and is shaped by, gendered experiences in Kenya and across the region.

Contents

• Saving Uhuru Park: The Imperatives of Maintaining Open Public Spaces in the Wake of Mega-Infrastructural Projects (Page 1)

Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Hadijah Yahyah & Muriuki Muriungi

• Critical Considerations in Mega Development Projects in Africa: Making the Public Voice Count (Page 4)

Eva Maria Okoth, Gino Cocchiaro & Mark Odaga

• Protecting Uhuru Park as a Public Open Space: Options and Implications (Page 23)

Collins Odote

• The Place of the National Land Commission in Management of Public Open Spaces in Kenya (Page 47)

Mwenda K. Makathimo

• When Urban Green Spaces Meet Infrastructure Development in Kenya: A Case of the Nairobi Expressway (Page 66)

Richard Mulwa

• EIA as a Tool for Balancing Economic, Social & Environmental Considerations in Infrastructure Development: The Case of Nairobi Expressway (Page 82)

Linda Kosgei & Marrian Mutete Kioko- Mutinda

• Promoting Public Interest Litigation in Kenya to Protect Public Open Spaces (Page 97)

Emily Kinama

• Case Review: Protecting Public Spaces under Kenya’s New Constitutional Dispensation: A Review of Petition No. 15 of 2018, Okiya Omtatah Okoiti V. National Land Commission (Page 119)

Clarice Wambua

• Book Review: Blazing the Trail: Professor Charles Okidi’s Enduring Legacy in the Development of Environmental Law (Page 127)

Reviewed by Angela Waki

• Book Review: Using Evidence in Policy and Practice: Lessons from Africa (Page 134)

Reviewed by Elizabeth Gitari

Contents

• Towards Gender Equality: A Critical Analysis of the Constitutional Response to Women’s Discrimination in Malawi

Ngcimezile Mbano-Mweso (Page 1)

• The Constitutional Promise: Realising the Right to Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination in Kenya

Sarah Muringa Kinyanjui and Patricia Kameri-Mbote (Page 19)

• Constitutional Foundations for Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Law Curriculum in Zimbabwe

Rosalie K Katsande and Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba (Page 34)

• Reconfiguring Legal Education to Deepen Gender Equality: Mainstreaming Gender Through Curriculum Review at the School of Law University of Nairobi

Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Seth Wekesa (Page 54)

• ‘Engendering’ The Curricula at the University of Zambia School of Law: Vision, Challenges, Successes

Mulela Margaret Munalula (Page 82)

• Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Socio Economic Rights in Law Curricula: Lessons from the Faculty of Law, University of Malawi

Theresa Chome (Page 99)

• Gender Equality, Non-Discrimination and Women’s Participation in Agency Rule-Making

Bernadette Malunga and Migai Akech (Page 123)

• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Women’s Economic Empowerment

Bernadette Malunga and Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo (Page 147)

• Employment and the Gender Climate at Chancellor College

Symon Chiziwa, Ngeyi Kanyongolo, and Marlene Chikuni (Page 163)

• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Kenya

Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Sarah Kinyanjui & Yohana Gadaffi (Page 184)

• Case Review: Appeal No. 15 of 2018 on Woman to Woman Marriage

Nkatha Kabira & Boru Gollo Jattani (Page 210)

CONTENTS

• Genetic Use Restriction Technologies, Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainable Development in Eastern and Southern Africa

Patricia Kameri-Mbote, James Otieno-Odek (Page 1)

• Delineating a Rights-Based Constitutional Fiscal Social Contract Through African Fiscal Constitutions

Attiya Waris (Page 24)

• Converging Ubuntu Principles with Corporate Social Responsibility to Extend Corporate Benefits to Communities

Duncan Ojwang (Page 49)

• Plant Breeder’s Rights in Kenya: Appropriate IP for Biodiversity and Biotechnology

Ben Sihanya (Page 68)

• Building a Democratic Legislature In Kenya

Migai Akech (Page 100)

• Judicial Approaches to the Applicability of Customary Law to Succession Disputes in Kenya

Winifred Kamau (Page 140)

• Access to Financial Services: A Human Rights Perspective

Njaramba Gichuki (Page 165)

• The 160 Girls Decision: Development as the Freedom From Sexual Violence and the Limits of the Law in Attaining that Freedom

Agnes K. Meroka (Page 185)

• Getting It Right: Towards Socially Sustainable Exploitation of the Extractive Industry in Kenya

Collins Odote, Smith Otieno (Page 202)

• Taming the Opposition in Kenya: Between State Machinations and Legal Excesses: 1963 – 2007

Adams Oloo (Page 222)

• Legal Feminism and Traditional Legal Doctrine: Contesting the Dominant Paradigm

Nancy M. Baraza (Page 245)

• Book Review: Njaramba Gichuki, Law of Financial Institutions in Kenya

Winifred Kamau (Page 267)

• Case Review: The CKW Petition No. 6 of 2013 on Consensual Sex Between Minors: Discriminatory Laws, Deficient Laws, or Poor Implementation?

Zaina Kombo, George Osino, Faith Lukosi (Page 269)