CONSTITUTION-MAKING IN SOMALIA; A CRITICAL ANALYSIS, 1960-2013

Abstract

As Okoth Ogendo pointed out a constitution is: A power map upon which the framers may delineate a whole set of concerns ranging all the way from an application of the Hobbesian concept of ‘the covenant,’ to an authoritative affirmation of the basis of social, moral, political or cultural existence including the ideals towards which the policy is expected to strive.1 Hence constitutional-making, is a process which involves, inter alia, making choices as to which one of those concerns should appear on that map. Thus, how these choices made, would necessarily affect some positively and others negatively depending on how they involved on the making of the choice. Hart asserts that, unlike the traditional constitutional making which considers the constitution as an act of “completion,” modem constitutional making focus on participatory and conversational “new constitutionalism.”2 Today there is a virtual consensus that a constitution should be made democratically. The understanding now prevails that constitutional process is democratic; only if it is participatory and all-inclusive in each stage preceding the final document.