Act and Laws in Kenya

Except where a longer time is specially allowed by law, no offence the maximum punishment for which does not exceed imprisonment for six months, or a fine of one thousand shillings, or both, shall be triable by a subordinate court, unless the charge or complaint relating to it is laid within twelve...

(1) Where a person of not less than eighteen years of age is convicted by a subordinate court of the second class of an offence which is punishable by either that court or a subordinate court of the first class, and the court convicting him, after obtaining information as to his character and...

The accused person to be tried before the High Court upon an information shall be placed at the bar unfettered, unless the court sees cause otherwise to order, and the information shall be read over to him by the Registrar or other officer of the court, and explained if need be by that officer or...

(1) Every objection to an information for a formal defect on the face thereof shall be taken immediately after the information has been read over to the accused person and not later. (2) Where, before a trial upon information or at any stage of the trial, it appears to the court that the...

(1) If an information does not state, and cannot by amendment authorized bysection 275 be made to state, an offence of which the accused has had notice, it shall be quashed either on a motion made before the accused pleads or on a motion made in arrest of judgment. (2) A written statement of every...

Where an information contains a count charging an accused person with having been previously convicted for an offence, the procedure shall be as follows— (a) the part of the information stating the previous conviction shall not be read out in court, nor shall the accused be asked whether he has...

An accused person, upon being arraigned upon an information, by pleading generally thereto the plea of “not guilty” shall, without further form, be deemed to have put himself upon the country for trial.

(1) An accused person against whom an information is filed may plead— (a) that he has been previously convicted or acquitted of the same offence; or (b) that he has obtained the President’s pardon for his offence. (2) If either of those pleas are pleaded and denied to be true, the court shalltry...

(1) If an accused person being arraigned upon an information stands muteof malice, or neither will nor by reason of infirmity can, answer directly to the information, the court may order the Registrar or other officer of the court to enter a plea of “not guilty” on behalf of the accused person, and...

(1) An accused person may plead not guilty, guilty, or guilty subject to a pleaagreement. (2) Where an accused person pleads guilty subject to a plea agreement, theprovisions of Part IV relating to plea agreements shall apply accordingly.

If the accused pleads “not guilty”, or if a plea of “not guilty” is entered in accordance with section 280, the court shall proceed to try the case.

(1) If, from the absence of witnesses or any other reasonable cause to berecorded in the proceedings, the court considers it necessary or advisable to postpone the commencement of or to adjourn a trial, the court may from time to time postpone or adjourn it on such terms as it thinks fit for such...

The advocate for the prosecution shall open the case against the accused person,and shall call witnesses and adduce evidence in support of the charge.

The witnesses called for the prosecution shall be subject to cross-examination by the accused person or his advocate, and to re-examination by the advocate for the prosecution.

(1) When the evidence of the witnesses for the prosecution has been concluded, the court, if it considers that there is no evidence that the accused or any one of several accused committed the offence shall, after hearing, if necessary, any arguments which the advocate for the prosecution or the...

(1) The accused person or his advocate may then open his case, stating the facts or law on which he intends to rely, and making such comments as he thinks necessary on the evidence for the prosecution; the accused person may then give evidence on his own behalf and he or his advocate may examine his...

The accused person shall be allowed to examine any witness not previously summoned to give evidence at the trial, if that witness is in attendance.

If the accused person adduces evidence in his defence introducing new matter which the advocate for the prosecution could not by the exercise of reasonable diligence have foreseen, the court may allow the advocate for the prosecution to adduce evidence in reply to rebut it.

If the accused person, or any one of several accused persons, adduces any evidence, the advocate for the prosecution shall, subject to the provisions of section 161, be entitled to reply.

If the accused person says that he does not intend to give or adduce evidence and the court considers that there is evidence that he committed the offence, the advocate for the prosecution shall then sum up the case against the accused person, and the court shall then call on the accused person...

(1) When the case on both sides is closed, the judge shall then give judgment. (2) If the accused person is convicted, the judge shall pass sentence on him according to law.

If the judge convicts the accused person, or if the accused person pleads guilty, the Registrar or other officer of the court shall ask him whether he has anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him according to law, but the omission so to ask him shall have no effect on the validity...

(1) The accused person may, at any time before sentence, whether on his pleaof guilty or otherwise, move in arrest of judgment on the ground that the information does not, after any amendment which the court has made and had power to make, state an offence which the court has power to try. (2) The...

If no motion in arrest of judgment is made, or if the court decides against the accused person upon a motion, the court may sentence the accused person at any time during the session.

The court before which a person is tried for an offence may reserve the giving of its final decision on questions raised at the trial, and its decision whenever given shall be considered as given at the time of the trial.

(1) When a person has, in a trial before the High Court, been convicted of anoffence, the judge may reserve and refer for the decision of a court consisting of two or more judges of the High Court any question which has arisen in the course of the trial, and the determination of which would affect...

No judgment shall be stayed or reversed on the ground of an objection which, if stated after the information was read over to the accused person, or during the progress of the trial, might have been amended by the court, nor for any informality in swearing the witnesses or any of them.

The court may, before passing sentence, receive such evidence as it thinks fit in order to inform itself as to the proper sentence to be passed.

In this Part— “family victim”, in relation to an offence as a direct result of which a primary victim has died, means a person who was, at the time the offence was committed, a member of the primary victim’s immediate family, and includes such a person whether or not the person has suffered...

This Part applies in relation to an offence that is being dealt with by any court, where the offence results in the death of, or actual physical bodily harm to, any person.