Book Launch: Equality in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution: Understanding the Competing and Interrelated Concepts

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights in partnership with the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC) is delighted to host the launch of Victoria Miyandazi’s new monograph: Equality in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution: Understanding the Competing and Interrelated Concepts (Hart Publishing, 2021).

SAIFAC is a centre of the University of Johannesburg and a leading research centre in South Africa producing advanced research in its focus areas. It also aims to foster collaboration and engagement between academics and members of the legal community across South Africa and internationally, and to advance constitutionalism, human rights and the rule of law in Southern Africa. To this end, it organises a seminar series and several conferences each year, makes submissions on law reform, engages actively in the public sphere and helps develop a new generation of public law academics.

This book launch brings together diverse and leading voices to discuss the conceptualisation, interpretation and application of the concept of equality in Kenya and South Africa. The panel discussion will be centred around the diverse perspectives on equality in Kenya South Africa, and where such standpoints intersect or conflict. Along with Dr Miyandazi, the panellists for the launch will include Nomfundo Ramalekana, Tarunabh Khaitan and Elisha Ongoya. The launch will be chaired by Professor David Bilchitz, the head of SAIFAC. The book launch promises to be an illuminating discussion on how to coherently interpret the constitution in a transformative way to address the myriad inequalities in Kenya. The book can be purchased via this link and a special discount will be offered to participants. 

Author

Victoria Miyandazi is a Law Lecturer at the University of Embu, Associate Advocate at Okubasu, Munene & Kazungu Advocates LLP and a former Researcher at the Oxford Human Rights Hub. She mainly teaches and writes on Equality Law, Human Rights, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Property Law and Comparative Law. She is the author of Equality in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution: Understanding the Competing and Interrelated Conceptions (Hart Publishing, 2021).

Panellists

Nomfundo Ramalekana is a lecturer in the Public Law Department at the University of Cape Town, where she teaches constitutional law. She has a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford. Her DPhil is on affirmative action in South Africa. In this work, she draws on the rich comparative affirmative action jurisprudence in India, the United States and Canada and the normative overlaps and tensions between distributive justice, corrective justice and equality theory to explore the possibility of a transformative affirmative action jurisprudence in South Africa. Her broad research interests are in constitutional law, human rights law, anti-discrimination law, feminist legal theory and critical race theory.

Tarun Khaitan is the Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights & the Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law (Oxford). He is also a Professor & Future Fellow at Melbourne Law School, working on a project on the resilience of democratic constitutions, with a focus on South Asia. He specialises in legal theory, constitutional studies, and discrimination law. He is the founding General Editor of the Indian Law Review, founder and Chief Advisor of the Junior Faculty Forum for Indian Law Teachers, and an Affiliate of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and an Associate of the Oxford Human Rights Hub. His monograph entitled A Theory of Discrimination Law (OUP 2015) has been cited by the  Elisha Zebedee Ongoya is a teacher and practitioner of the law. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law at Kabarak University (in Kenya) where he has previously served as a Head of Department and Dean. He is also a Principal Partner at Ongoya & Wambola Advocates, a law firm based in Nairobi, Kenya. His areas of teaching and practice include Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights Law, Legal Theory, Elections Law and Multi-Level Governance Law.

Chair

David Bilchitz is a Professor of Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Johannesburg and Professor of Law at the University of Reading. He is also Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC) and Vice-President of the International Association of Constitutional Law. He is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.  His research focuses on multiple dimensions of fundamental rights such as socio-economic rights, business and fundamental rights, proportionality and animal rights. His new monograph is about to be released in November 2021 titled ‘Fundamental Rights and the Legal Obligations of Business’ (Cambridge University Press).