Kenya Independence Order in Council 1963

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1963/1968

1963 No. 1968

KENYA

The Kenya Independence Order in Council 1963

4thDecember 1963

5thDecember 1963

Immediately before 12thDecember 1963

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 4th day of December 1963

Present,

The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council

Her Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the powers in that behalf by the British Settlements Acts 1887 and 1945(a), the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890(b), the Kenya Independence Act 1963(c) or otherwise in Her Majesty vested, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:—

Citation, commencement and construction.

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Kenya Independence Order in Council 1963.

(2) This Order shall come into operation immediately before 12th December 1963:

Provided that where the Governor-General or the President of a Regional Assembly established by this Order has power by or under this Order to make any appointment or make any order or do any other thing for the purposes of this Order, that power may be exercised by the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya or, as the case may be, by the President of a Regional Assembly established by the Orders revoked by this Order at any time after the making of this Order to such extent as may, in his opinion, be necessary or expedient to enable the Constitution of Kenya established by this Order to function as from 12th December 1963.

(3) Save where the context otherwise requires, expressions used in section 1 to 20 (inclusive) of this Order have the same meaning as in the Constitution of Kenya set out in Schedule 2 of this Order and the provisions of section 247 of that Constitution shall apply for the purposes of interpreting those sections as they apply for the purposes of interpreting that Constitution.

Revocation.

2. The Kenya Order in Council 1963(d) and the Kenya (Amendment) Order in Council 1963(e) (hereinafter referred to as "the existing Orders") are revoked.

Establishment of Constitution.

3. Subject to the provisions of this Order, the Constitution of Kenya set out in Schedule 2 of this Order (hereinafter referred to as "the Constitution") shall come into effect in Kenya at the commencement of this Order.

(a) 50 & 51 Vict. c. 54 and 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 7.

(b) 53 & 54 Vict. c. 37.

(c) 1963 c. 54.

(d) S.I. 1963/791 (1963 I, p. 953).

(e) S.I. 1963/1047 (1963 II, p. 1795).

Existing laws.

4.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Order, the existing laws shall, notwithstanding the enactment of the Kenya Independence Act 1963 and the revocation of the existing Orders, continue in force after the commencement of this Order as if they had been made in pursuance of this Order, but they shall be construed with such modifications, adaptations, qualifications and exceptions as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with this Order.

(2) Any existing law—

(a) to the extent to which it makes provision with respect to any matter with respect to which, under the Constitution, a Regional Assembly may, and Parliament may not, make laws; or

(b) to the extent to which—

(i) it makes provision with respect to any matter with respect to which, under the Constitution, both Parliament and a Regional Assembly may make laws; and

(ii) it was made by a Regional Assembly established by the existing Orders or it has effect under the existing Orders immediately before the commencement of this Order as if it had been so made,

shall have effect, as from the commencement of this Order, as if it had been made by (or, as the case may require, as if it had been made under a law made by) that Regional Assembly, but the existing laws shall otherwise have effect, as from the commencement of this Order, as if they had been made by Parliament (or, as the case may require, as if they had been made under an Act of Parliament).

(3) Where any matter that falls to be prescribed or otherwise provided for under the Constitution by Parliament or by a Regional Assembly or by any other authority or person is prescribed or provided for by or under an existing law (including any amendment to any such law made under this section) or is otherwise prescribed or provided for immediately before the commencement of this Order by or under the existing Orders, that prescription or provision shall, as from the commencement of this Order, have effect as if it had been made under the Constitution by Parliament or by the Regional Assembly or, as the case may be, by the other authority or person.

(4) The Governor-General may by order made at any time before 12th December 1964 make such amendments to any existing law, to the extent to which it makes provision with respect to any matter with respect to which, under the Constitution, Parliament may make laws, as may appear to him to be necessary or expedient for bringing that law into conformity with the provisions of the Constitution or otherwise for giving effect or enabling effect to be given to those provisions.

(5) The President of a Regional Assembly may by order made at any time before 12th December 1964 make such amendments to any existing law, to the extent to which it makes provision with respect to any matter with respect to which, under the Constitution, that Regional Assembly may make laws, as may appear to him to be necessary or expedient for bringing that law into conformity with the provisions of the Constitution or otherwise for giving effect or enabling effect to be given to those provisions.

(6) The provisions of this section shall be without prejudice to any powers conferred by this Order or by any other law upon any person or authority to make provision for any matter, including the amendment or repeal of any existing law.

(7) The existing laws which are specified in column 1 of Schedule 1 of this Order shall, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section and notwithstanding that those laws are not in conformity with the other provisions of this Order, continue in force after the commencement of this Order with the respective modifications specified in column 2 of that Schedule until the respective dates specified in column 3 of that Schedule or until they are earlier revoked by the Governor-General by notice published in the Kenya Gazette and they shall then expire.

(8) For the purposes of this section, the expression "existing law" means any Ordinance, Enactment, law, rule, regulation, order or other instrument made or having effect as if it had been made in pursuance of the existing Orders and having effect as part of the law of Kenya or of any part thereof immediately before the commencement of this Order or any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom or Order of Her Majesty in Council (other than the Kenya Independence Act 1963 and this Order) so having effect.

Existing officers.

5.—(1) Where any office has been established by or under the existing Orders or any existing law and the Constitution establishes or provides for the establishment of a similar or an equivalent office (not being the office of Prime Minister or other Minister or Parliamentary Secretary), any person who, immediately before the commencement of this Order, holds or is acting in the former office shall, so far as is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution, be deemed as from the commencement of this Order to have been appointed, elected or otherwise selected to or to act in the latter office in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and to have taken any necessary oath under the Constitution:

Provided that any person who under the existing Orders or any existing law would have been required to vacate his office at the expiration of any period or on the attainment of any age shall vacate his office at the expiration of that period or on the attainment of that age.

(2) The provisions of this section shall be without prejudice to—

(a) the provisions of sections 6 and 7 of this Order; and

(b) any powers conferred by or under this Order upon any person or authority to make provision for the abolition of offices and the removal of persons holding or acting in any office.

(3) In this section "existing law" means such a law as is referred to in section 4(8) of this Order.

Parliament.

6.—(1) The Senate and the House of Representatives established by the existing Orders (in this section referred to respectively as "the existing Senate" and "the existing House of Representatives") shall be the Senate and House of Representatives during the period beginning with the commencement of this Order and ending with the first dissolution of Parliament thereafter.

(2) The persons who, immediately before the commencement of this Order, are the members of the existing Senate or are the Elected Members or the Specially Elected Members of the existing House of Representatives shall continue to be the members of the Senate or, as the case may be, the Elected Members or Specially Elected Members of the House of Representatives after the commencement of this Order and as from that time shall be deemed to have been elected thereto in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and shall hold their seats therein in accordance with those provisions:

Provided that a person who continues to be a Senator or a member of the House of Representatives under this subsection but who does not become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December 1963 shall not be required, until 1st February 1964, to vacate his seat as such on the grounds that he is not a citizen of Kenya but shall vacate his seat as such on the said 1st February unless he has previously become a citizen of Kenya.

(3) The persons who, immediately before the commencement of this Order, are the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the existing Senate and the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the existing House of Representatives shall continue to be, respectively, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker and the Deputy...

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