The role of the Kenyan judiciary in the implementation of decisions and recommendations of African regional mechanisms on human and peoples' rights

Africa's human rights mechanisms, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, have made significant strides in interpreting the content of human rights guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and setting standards on the implementation of state obligations thereto. These standards may be derived from various mechanisms, including the African Commission's decisions on individual communications, its resolutions, Concluding Observations on reports of state parties, guidelines on various human rights and General Comments. This article seeks to consider how the Kenyan judiciary has contributed to the implementation of the decisions of Africa's human rights mechanisms generally. However, more focus is placed on the recommendations of the African Commission. In this regard, the article considers two types of recommendations: those that are targeted to Kenya and those that are not specific to the country. In addressing these issues, both domestic and continental decisions and recommendations of the mechanisms are analysed. The article concludes that since the promulgation of Kenya's Constitution 2010, the courts have largely adopted an avoidance approach towards decisions and recommendations of African human rights mechanisms. As a result, the value of continental decisions and mechanisms has been greatly diminished.