State Institutions and the Separation of Powers
This domain tests how power is divided among the legislature, executive and judiciary, and how each institution checks the others. Questions often name an institution and ask which branch it belongs to or which body it reports to.
The three branches
- Legislature: Parliament, which makes law, controls public finance and holds the executive to account through committees.
- Executive: the President, Cabinet and public service, which implement law and policy.
- Judiciary: the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and lower courts, which interpret law and review action for legality.
Checks and balances
- Parliament's Committee on Public Accounts and Committee on Public Enterprises scrutinise spending and state enterprises.
- The Auditor General audits public accounts and reports to Parliament.
- The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) investigates injustice caused by public administration.
- The Judicial Service Commission handles appointments, transfers and discipline in the judiciary.
- Independent commissions, including the Elections Commission and the Human Rights Commission, are insulated from direct ministerial control; the Constitutional Council recommends or approves senior appointments, including judges.
Worked example. A question asks whether the President's power to appoint senior judges destroys judicial independence. Reasoning: the appointment is not free-standing. It runs through the Constitutional Council, which recommends or approves candidates, and judges hold office during good behaviour with removal only on a proved misbehaviour or incapacity address. The design is a check, not a blank cheque, so the correct answer is that the power is shared rather than absolute.
Traps that cost marks
- Placing the Attorney General in the judiciary: he or she is the Government's chief legal adviser, not a judge.
- Assuming the Ombudsman can overturn a court decision.
- Confusing the Auditor General (public audit) with the Attorney General (legal advice).
- Claiming the three branches are completely separate with no overlap: the Cabinet is drawn from Parliament.