The Parliamentary and Stakeholder Challenges in Promoting Evidence-informed Legislative Policymaking in Kenya 1

While several studies have delved into constraints that parliaments face in Africa, especially regarding their core functions of oversight, lawmaking, and representation, there are limited empirical discussions about difficulties encountered in promoting evidence-based legislative policymaking. This paper assesses empirical challenges encountered in promoting evidence-based legislative policymaking in the Kenyan parliament. Legislative policymaking is anchored on parliamentary Evidence systems, defined as tools and structures within parliaments that supply practical, reliable information to guide policymaking processes. They include internal mechanisms such as research units and training centers, procedural processes such as public participation, and external influences from bureaucracies, policy entrepreneurs, and experts. This discussion examines unique challenges to parliamentary staff and other stakeholders, such as policy entrepreneurs, in leveraging evidence-informed legislative policymaking. For the parliamentary staff, challenges include infrastructural capacities, Insufficient Research Staff, Institutional biases, and unwillingness to participate by the Staff, political influence, and resource constraints, among others. For the stakeholders, challenges include limited collaboration and engagement barriers, technological deficiencies, resource constraints, and funding limitations. The conclusion proposes strategies for navigating and overcoming these challenges during legislative policymaking pathways.