The Kenyan Constitution and the Question of Succession: The influence of a strong leader

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya, is over eighty years of age. The prospect of the people of Kenya having to select a successor to President Kenyatta raises fundamental questions regarding the status of Kenya\u27s constitution in terms of its having assumed, in the minds of Kenyans, the aura of legitimacy to the extent that they will accept its mandate as the supreme law. This paper will be an attempt to analyze, first, the process of legitimization of the Kenya constitution, specifically in regard to the provisions for succession to the presidency; and secondly, to ascertain what, if any, perceptions derived from the analysis are, or could be, applicable to other developing African countries experimenting with various constitutional arrangements