Authorities
The cases Kenyan courts actually rely on, and the courts that rely on them. Every citation in the corpus is recorded with the proposition it supports and the treatment it was given, so you can see how an authority has travelled before you put it in a submission.
Most cited authorities in the corpus
A link is counted once for each judgment that cites the authority, however many times the judgment mentions it. An authority enters this list the moment a second judgment relies on it.
The Court's advisory jurisdiction under Article 163(6) is discretionary and confined to questions of public importance, and the constitutional timeline for a general election cannot be deferred by agreement between the parties.
Jurisdiction flows from the Constitution or from legislation. It can never be conferred by the consent of the parties, nor assumed because a litigant would otherwise be left without a remedy.
Jurisdiction is everything. Without it a court has no power to make one more step, and any decision it purports to take is a nullity that cannot be cured by the merits.
A first appellate court must reconsider the evidence, evaluate it itself and reach its own conclusion, while making allowance for the fact that it did not see or hear the witnesses.
A party who alleges a violation of constitutional rights must set out the right said to be infringed, the provision that infringes it, and the manner of the infringement, with reasonable precision.
The court does not review the merits of an appointment made by a constitutional commission. It asks whether the process was lawful, whether the qualifications were met, and whether the decision was rational.
The Constitution is a living instrument. Its provisions must be read as a whole, and where a right is engaged the court gives effect to the purpose of the provision rather than its literal shape.
Citation counts by court
The High Court cites the most authorities in absolute terms because it decides the most matters. The Supreme Court cites the most per judgment, which is what you would expect from a court that writes for the profession.
| Court | Authority links | Distinct authorities | Most cited authority | Links per judgment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court | 3,184 | 604 | In the Matter of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission | 10.2 |
| Court of Appeal | 5,412 | 1,204 | Owners of the Motor Vessel “Lillian S” v Caltex Oil (Kenya) Ltd | 0.78 |
| High Court | 7,206 | 1,512 | Okeno v Republic | 0.10 |
| Employment and Labour Relations Court | 1,412 | 186 | Kenfreight (EA) Ltd v Benson K. Nguti | 0.11 |
| Environment and Land Court | 894 | 92 | Mumo Matemu v Trusted Society of Human Rights Alliance | 0.10 |
| Magistrates' courts and tribunals | 96 | 34 | Anarita Karimi Njeru v Republic | 0.02 |
Counts per court overlap: an authority cited by two courts appears in both rows. “Links per judgment” is the average number of authorities each judgment in that court relies on.
How a citation is counted
A citation index is only as good as its definition. These are the three rules the ingest pipeline applies to every judgment.
The judgment names the authority in its text, footnotes or list of authorities. A passing mention in a party's submissions is not a citation until the court adopts it.
Each link is tied to the point the authority was cited for — jurisdiction, standard of review, sentencing. One judgment can cite the same case for two different propositions.
The citing court must say what it does with the authority: followed, applied, distinguished, not followed or overruled. Where the treatment is not stated, the link is recorded as considered.
Every link is a click away from the paragraph that carries it. Open the raw judgment beside the brief before you rely on any authority in court.