Mwirebua v Mutonga (Environment and Land Miscellaneous Application E023 of 2024) [2025] KEELC 7064 (KLR)

The certificate of taxation was issued in ELC Appeal No. E023 of 2024, and Rule 11 of the Advocates Remuneration Order requires a reference to be lodged in the matter giving rise to the certificate. Filing a fresh miscellaneous cause for a matter anchored in an existing substantive file is erroneous and illegal. The mode of invoking jurisdiction goes to the root of jurisdiction, a substantive irregularity that Article 159(2)(d) cannot cure, as confirmed in Scope Telematics and Kakuta Maimai Hamisi.

The appeal concerned constructive trust and its judgment carried no monetary award. Post-judgment taxation must be guided by the value discernible from the judgment or settlement, not the pleadings in the subordinate court. The applicant conceded the absence of value in the judgment, so the taxing officer properly exercised discretion and no error of principle was demonstrated warranting interference with the certificate of taxation.

The respondent argued, without contradiction in the court's findings, that getting up fees on appeal are claimable only subject to a certificate by the judge at the conclusion of the appeal certifying complexity. In the absence of such a certificate, the taxing officer was right to tax off the getting up fees item.