Constitution without constitutionalism or constitutionalism in evolution?: a critical study of the first forty five years of constitutional law and practice in independent Tanzania (1961-200) and Kenya (1963-2008)

The work attempts a critical examination of the current state of constitutionalism and constitutional development in East Africa generally and Tanzania and Kenya in particular. The constitutions for these countries provide for constitutionalism. However, constitutionalism does not seem to have been manifested realistically over more than forty five years of these countries' independence. Both the library and field research in form of interviews, focused group discussions and structured interviews were conducted within Dar es Salaam and by correspondence in Nairobi to obtain data for the study. The work points out that the constitutions of these countries have a number of bottlenecks that make them less effective and inefficient. This includes the non-involvement of people in the process of these countries' constitution making. Secondly, the emergence of a group of politicians who have institutionalized the political fate to themselves have been facilitated by lack of constitutionalism and has thus, also, virtually hampered the process of constitutional development. Finally, the work proposes constitutional reforms to overcome these bottlenecks and the strengthening of the political will as the cornerstone issue for rendering the constitutions efficient and efficacious.