amir

Winning an election petition (or successfully defending against one) doesn’t mean the winning side gets to recover whatever it spent on lawyers without limit. Kenyan courts apply a deliberately calibrated approach to costs in election matters, and a recent High Court ruling sets out the reasoning behind it clearly. The Case In Julieta Karigi Kithumbu […]

If you’re planning to challenge an election result in Kenya, there’s a strict financial requirement that has to be met almost immediately after filing, and getting it wrong doesn’t just weaken your case. It ends it. A recent High Court decision spells out exactly how unforgiving this requirement is. The Rule Section 78 of the […]

Public institutions with a broad statutory mandate (electoral bodies, regulators, revenue authorities) face a particular kind of litigation risk: the same legal question, dressed up in new facts, arriving again and again. A recent High Court decision shows how a well-settled precedent, properly invoked, can shut that kind of challenge down efficiently, without the institution […]

Every election cycle, some aspiring candidates lose their chance to run, not on the campaign trail, but months earlier, by getting the timing of a single administrative step wrong. A recent High Court decision is a clear reminder of just how strictly this rule is enforced, and how little room courts have found to make […]

Among the doctrines that keep a legal system functional, few do as much quiet work as res judicata: the principle that once a matter has been conclusively decided by a competent court, it cannot be relitigated between the same parties, or over the same issue, again. It rarely makes headlines, but it is often the […]

One of the most common (and most paralysing) misconceptions among employers is that terminating an employee for misconduct requires the kind of airtight, beyond-reasonable-doubt proof you’d need to secure a criminal conviction. The Case In Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited v Lydia Kaguri Makathimo (Court of Appeal at Nyeri, Civil Appeal No. 114 of 2021), […]

In sectors built on trust and access to money (banking, SACCOs, microfinance, insurance) an employee’s private financial dealings are rarely just their own business. The Court of Appeal decision discussed shows how a seemingly personal side arrangement became grounds for lawful dismissal, and why the contractual language around it matters more than most institutions realise. […]

Terminating an employee for misconduct is one of the highest-risk decisions a business makes. Get it wrong procedurally, and even a well justified dismissal can be overturned. A recent Court of Appeal case shows exactly what a defensible process looks like, because the employer in that case got the procedure right even though its case […]

Filing a case is only the beginning. Kenyan procedural law places an ongoing burden on the party who brings a claim: once a hearing date is fixed and notice is given, that party is expected to appear and actively push the case forward. Failing to do so can end the case entirely, regardless of how […]

When a dispute arises, the instinct is often to name every entity that touched the decision as a respondent. It feels thorough. But naming the wrong party ( or a party that legally cannot be sued at all) can quietly undermine an otherwise strong case. A recent constitutional petition before the High Court at Meru […]