The Influence of Public Participation in Bill Legislation in the Kenya National Assembly: A Case Study of the Children's Bill 2021 (National Assembly Bill No.38of 2021)
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Date
2025-10
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
Public participation is essential in a democracy, as laws are made through legislative processes that must involve citizens. In Kenya, public engagement in the National Assembly’s law-making process promotes transparency, accountability, and government responsiveness. Kenya’s 2010 Constitution requires public participation, but its effectiveness in the National Assembly’s law-making remains unclear. Disputes highlight challenges in the process, citizen involvement, and legislators’ willingness to use public input. This raises questions about what constitutes genuine, inclusive, and impactful participation. This study aimed to investigate the influence of public participation, knowledge, procedure, design, and stakeholders' satisfaction on the outcome of the Kenyan legislative bill. The study was based on the notion of good governance and participatory democracy. The investigation utilised a descriptive research design. The Information was collected by distributing questionnaires to a selected group of individuals, including Kenya’s National Assembly staff, parties involved in the bill, and members of the public from Nyandarua County, using the Slovin Formula. The study had a response rate of 73% done by random sampling. The study analysed the quantitative data using the multinomial logistic regression model, a generalised linear model that was used to check whether the explanatory variables, including the demographic characteristics, were a significant fit to the model and sufficiently explained the passage of Kenyan parliamentary bills. These variables were found to be significant to the model using the Likelihood Ratio Test. The study further revealed that of the respondents did not have awareness of public participation, as well as the Children’s Bill 2021The study revealed that there was limited to no stakeholder engagement by the National Assembly during legislative processes. This absence of participation restricted opportunities for citizens, civil society, and other stakeholders to provide input on policy matters. The study further observed that low literacy levels in the county constrained citizens’ ability to engage effectively with legislative issues, thereby diminishing their capacity to contribute meaningfully to governance
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of a Master’s Degree in Public Policy of Kenyatta University. October 2025
Supervisor
Heather Kipchumba