Protection of property rights is a cornerstone of a country’s economic development, social stability and bedrock of rule of law. In the contemporary world, property rights have expanded meaning beyond tangible assets to include intangible objects such as intellectual property and environmental resources. A country’s effective legal system should be able to foster innovation, investment, and economic growth by providing individuals and businesses with security that ensure proper utilization of the property in the resources. Technological advancements, including block chain and artificial intelligence offers an inventive mechanisms for enhancing transparency and trust in property rights protection. Therefore countries have enshrined protection of their properties in their grand norm as to provide strong protection as no law that can contravenes with the constitution.
A constitution is the supreme law in any liberal democratic state, it plays a vital role in the protection of property rights of citizens. In Kenya and Tanzania, the constitution serves as a bedrock and foundation through which all legal formalities and frameworks that safeguard and protect property rights and ownership adhere to. This paper seeks to explores the interplay that exist between the constitutional supremacy and property rights protection in both two countries in the East African block, analyzing how the respective constitution protects individual property rights and how supreme the constitutions are in protecting the property rights.
This paper analyzes the effectiveness of both two Countries constitutional supremacy in protecting property rights, it highlights constitutional provisions, land mark cases and the dispute between individuals’ ownership and the government. Both countries offer constitutional guarantees, however both having differences in the models of protection in both land, citizenship and intellectual properties in relation to compensation and impact of government policies on such properties.
Key Words: Constitution,Constitutional Supremacy, Rights to property, property rights and protection of property Rights
