Act and Laws in Kenya

This Act may be cited as the Evidence Act.

(1) This Act shall apply to all judicial proceedings in or before any court other than a Khadi’s court, but not to proceedings before an arbitrator. (2) Subject to the provisions of any other Act or of any rules of court, this Act shall apply to affidavits presented to any court.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires— “admissible” means admissible in evidence; “advocate” has the meaning ascribed to that expression in the Advocates Act (Cap. 16), and includes any person entitled, pursuant to section 9 of that Act, to act as an advocate,...

(1) Whenever it is provided by law that the court may presume a fact, it may either regard such fact as proved, unless and until it is disproved, or may call for proof of it. (2) Whenever it is directed by law that the court shall presume a fact, it shall regard such fact as proved, unless and...

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any other law, no evidence shall be given in any suit or proceeding except evidence of the existence or nonexistence of a fact in issue, and of any other fact declared by any provision of this Act to be relevant.

Facts which, though not in issue, are so connected with a fact in issue as to form part of the same transaction are relevant whether they occurred at the same time and place or at different times and places.

Facts which are the occasion, cause or effect, immediate or otherwise, of relevant facts or facts in issue, or which constitute the state of things under which they happened or which afforded an opportunity for their occurrence or transaction are relevant.

(1) Any fact is relevant which shows or constitutes a motive or preparation for any fact in issue or relevant fact. (2) The conduct of any party, or of any agent of a party, to any suit or proceeding, in reference to such suit or proceeding or in reference to any fact in issue therein or relevant...

Facts necessary to explain or introduce a fact in issue or relevant fact, or which support or rebut an inference suggested by such a fact, or which establish the identity of any thing or person whose identity is relevant, or fix the time or place at which any fact in issue or relevant fact happened,...

Where there is reasonable ground to believe that two or more persons have conspired together to commit an offence or an actionable wrong, anything said, done or written by any one of such persons in reference to their common intention, after the time when such intention was first entertained by any...

not otherwise relevant are relevant— (a) if they are inconsistent with any fact in issue or relevant fact; or (b) if by themselves or in connection with other facts they make the existence or non-existence of any fact in issue or relevant fact highly probable or improbable.

In suits in which damages are claimed, any fact which will enable the court to determine the amount of damages which ought to be awarded is relevant.

Where the existence of any right or custom is in question, the following facts are relevant— (a) any transaction by which the right or custom in question was created, claimed, modified, recognized, asserted or denied, or which was inconsistent with its existence; or (b) particular instances in...

(1) Facts showing the existence of any state of mind, such as intention, knowledge, good faith, negligence, rashness, ill-will or good-will towards any particular person, or showing the existence of any state of body or bodily feeling, are relevant, when the existence of any such state of mind or...

When there is a question whether an act was accidental or intentional, or done with a particular knowledge or intention, the fact that such act formed part of a series of similar occurrences, in each of which the person doing the act was concerned, is relevant.

When there is a question whether a particular act was done, the existence of any course of business, according to which it naturally would have been done, is relevant.

An admission is a statement, oral or documentary, which suggests any inference as to a fact in issue or relevant fact, and which is made by any of the persons and in the circumstances hereinafter mentioned.

(1) Statements made by a party to the proceeding, or by an agent to any such party, whom the court regards in the circumstances of the case as expressly or impliedly authorized by him to make them, are admissions. (2) Statements made by parties to suits, suing or sued in a representative...

Statements made by persons whose position or liability it is necessary to prove as against any party to a suit, are admissions if such statements would be admissible as against such persons in relation to such position or liability in a suit brought by or against them, and if they are made whilst...

Statements made by persons to whom a party to the suit has expressly referred for information in reference to a matter in dispute are admissions.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, an admission may be proved as against the person who makes it or his representative in interest; but an admission cannot be proved by or on behalf of the person who makes it or by his representative in interest, except in the following cases— (a) when it is...

Oral admissions as to the contents of a document may not be proved unless and until the party proposing to prove them shows that he is entitled to give secondary evidence of the contents of such document under the provisions of this Act or unless the genuineness of a document produced is in...

(1) In civil cases no admission may be proved if it is made either upon an express condition that evidence of it is not to be given or in circumstances from which the court can infer that the parties agreed together that evidence of it should not be given. (2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this...

Admissions are not conclusive proof of the matters admitted, but they may operate as estoppels under the provisions hereinafter contained.

A confession comprises words or conduct, or a combination of words and conduct, from which, whether taken alone or in conjunction with other facts proved, an inference may reasonably be drawn that the person making it has committed an offence.

(1) A confession or any admission of a fact tending to the proof of guilt made by an accused person is not admissible and shall not be proved as against such person unless it is made in court before a judge, a magistrate or before a police officer (other than the investigating officer), being an...

A confession or any admission of a fact tending to the proof of guilt made by an accused person is not admissible in a criminal proceeding if the making of the confession or admission appears to the court to have been caused by any inducement, threat or promise having reference to the charge against...

If such a confession as is referred to in section 26 of this Act is made after the impression caused by any such inducement, threat or promise has, in the opinion of the court, been fully removed, it is admissible.

Repealed by Act No. 5 of 2003, s. 100.

No confession made to a police officer shall be proved against a person accused of any offence unless such police officer is— (a) of or above the rank of, or a rank equivalent to, sub-inspector; or (b) an administrative officer holding first or second class magisterial powers and acting in the...