Constitution of Kenya

Kenya's current constitution was approved by referendum on 4 August 2010, with about sixty seven percent of voters in favor, and it took effect on 27 August 2010, superseding the Constitution of Kenya Act, 1969, which had governed the country since shortly after independence. It establishes Kenya as a unitary presidential republic, with the president serving as both head of state and head of government alongside a Deputy President and Cabinet, and it replaced the country's previous unicameral legislature with a bicameral Parliament made up of a Senate and a National Assembly. Its most structurally significant change was the introduction of a devolved system of government, splitting authority between the national government and forty seven counties under powers set out in the constitution's Fourth Schedule, alongside an unusually expansive Bill of Rights that recognizes socio-economic as well as civil and political rights.