Administrative Law

Assignment

Question 1

Mr. X owns a house in Wazimu County. Last month, he received an email letter from the County Government of Wazimu. The letter informed Mr. X that the County Government had investigated the ownership of the land on which the house Mr. X stands and found that the land is public land reserved for a public school. The letter requires Mr. X to demolish his house within 48 hours from the hour he receives the email letter.

The Land Act of the County gives power to the County Government to demolish private houses where the Independent County Land Commission has established that the land is public land and has recommended that the house be demolished. It further provides that the County Government shall before taking any step based on the recommendation, publish the findings and recommendations of the Commission in the National Gazette, two newspapers with national-wide circulation, and serve a hard copy of the notification letter on the owner of the affected house personally. The Act further provides that the notice shall give the house owner 30 days' notice from the date of publishing the notice in the Gazette.

After making some inquiries, Mr. X established that the Independent County Land Commission had not investigated the ownership of his land or made any recommendations. However, Mr. X has always known that his house sits on land reserved for a public school. Mr. X was planning to vacate the land in about 5 years.

Mr. X has consulted you to advise him on the principles of administrative law that he can rely on to challenge the decision of the County Government. (30 marks)

Question 2

Parliament passed the Privatization Bill 2023 into law in October 2023. The Act repeals and replaces the Privatisation Act 2005.

Section 2 of the Privatisation Act states, "Cabinet Secretary" means the Cabinet Secretary to the National Treasury."

Section 64 of the Privatisation Act states that "The Cabinet Secretary may make Regulations generally for the better carrying out of the provisions of this Act."

You are a legal assistant in the Office of the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and National Planning. The Cabinet Secretary has requested you to prepare a legal opinion for him on the steps and process of developing regulations envisaged under section 64 of the Privatisation Act to operationalize the provisions of the Act.

Prepare the legal opinion (20 marks)

Question 3

You are a legal intern at KKW Company Advocates in Kisumu County. Mr. Kinoke, a senior partner, walks into your office and gives you the following facts:

a) Five departments within the Government of Kenya have continued to operate sub-optimally, characterised by inefficiencies and over-reliance on the Exchequer as a source of funds.

b) For quite a long period, these departments have drained the government resources that would otherwise be utilised for further economic growth and development. Worst still, some of these public entities have denied the government the much-needed internally generated revenues, leaving Kenya with debts.

c) The inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of some of these departments have also seen the government export jobs as it imports some of the goods and services that would otherwise be produced locally.

d) To address this problem, the Government intends to convert these departments into state corporations to enhance their efficiency and commercial viability in generating income for the government.

Mr. Kinoke requests you to prepare a legal opinion on the possible options to be used to convert the departments into state corporations including the merits and demerits of each option (20 marks).

Question 4

"The principles of administrative law are practically applied through the doctrines of ultra vires and the rule of law."

Using examples, critically examine the accuracy of this statement in the Kenyan legal system. (20 marks)

Question 5

"Democracy needs bureaucracy. However, bureaucracy is often unaccountable to the public for how it exercises the powers delegated to it. This is the basis for the claim that bureaucracy is a threat to democracy. It becomes necessary therefore to protect the efficiency and accountability of the bureaucracy." ... Anon

Discuss the mechanisms by which the Constitution of Kenya 2010 seeks to address the concerns about bureaucracy in Kenya raised in the above statement and analyse the extent to which these mechanisms have been successful in practice. (20 marks).