Kali Security Company Ltd v Mureithi

The court held that the Court of Appeal's jurisdiction is precipitated by the filing of a notice of appeal, which is the launching pad. Whether filed within the prescribed 14 days or within an extended period granted under Rule 4, the notice is valid. The timetable in Rule 81(1) then applies, requiring the appeal to be instituted within 60 days of the date the notice of appeal was lodged. The appellant's record was filed within that period, so no separate extension for the record was needed.

The court distinguished the respondent's authorities, which concerned situations where no valid notice of appeal subsisted because the record had not been filed in time and Rule 82(a) deemed the notice withdrawn. Here, by contrast, the record of appeal was filed within 60 days of the lodging of a valid notice of appeal, so Rule 82(a) was never triggered and the appeal was properly on record.

Rule 80 permits a person affected by an appeal to apply to strike out the appeal on the ground that some essential step has not been taken within the prescribed time, but the proviso bars such an application after 30 days from service of the record of appeal. On the dates, the application was filed within the 30-day window, so it was properly before the court; it nonetheless failed because the record had been validly filed.