Criminal justice system breaking down

Kenya's criminal law and jurisprudence is founded on the common law – age-old legal tradition evolved in England after the Norman Conquest. The doctrines of common law have been adopted all over the world, notably in America and most commonwealth countries.

Despite the historical reliance on English law, the principles of criminal law are not only being questioned, but a new wave of change in the criminal justice system is being championed. Interestingly, just last week, US President Barack Obama, while speaking in Philadelphia at a function of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – the largest and oldest civil rights organisation in the country – called for a sweeping effort to change what he called a 'broken system'. President Obama alluded to mass incarceration of the past two decades, devastated communities and racially-charged upheavals.