Historically, African customary law has taken the lower echelons of legal leaders, often reserved for more formal laws. This is mainly due to the introduction of Western legal and religious systems through the study of Western nations in Africa, missionary activity and, subsequently, colonization. However, African countries – including Kenya – are making every effort to recognize customary law. This document deals with the constant deterioration of customary law from colonial times until the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in 2010, where there are attempts to revive its application, it also discusses the challenges that the courts may face today in this application of customary law and possible solutions to these challenges. Customary law is recognized as one of the sources of Kenyan law, where it is called “African customary law”. Custom is the oldest source of law in Africa. He created the set of laws that governed the indigenous African communities of pre-colonial Africa. The scope of the common law in traditional African society was global. The advent of colonial administration in Kenya in the second half of the nineteenth century would forever change this vast scope and status of customary law, and this legal regime has been embroiled in controversies ever since. The colonial administration considered customary law to be inferior to English law and took deliberate steps to formalize this perceived inferiority.
This colonial influence was so strong that even subsequent attempts to restore the seriousness of customary law in Kenya after independence largely relegated it to inferiority. Subscribe to this paid review for more articles on this topic P.O. Box 59857P.O. Box 54668Nairobi, Nairobi 00200Kenia.