Kaki & another v Kiamba (Environment and Land Miscellaneous Case E029 of 2025) [2025] KEELC 8644 (KLR)
The bottom line
#Kenya's Environment and Land Court allowed a family extra time to appeal after the death of their litigant delayed the case.
What this practically means
#Executive summary
#Key legal issues
#Whether the Applicants met the threshold for extension of time to appeal out of time
The application was allowed; the delay was sufficiently explained.
The court applied the Salat criteria. Instructions to appeal were given before the deceased's death; the appeal was filed within time, unaware of the death; the appeal was withdrawn on learning of the death. The delay stemmed from the polygamous family's difficulty agreeing on who to take out a limited grant, resolved only with the Deputy County Commissioner's intervention. The grant issued on 19th August 2025 and the application followed on 15th September 2025. No prejudice to the Respondent was found, and substitution before the lower court was not required.
Whether the Applicants had capacity to bring the application absent substitution before the lower court
Capacity was established by the limited grant; substitution before the lower court was unnecessary.
The Respondent argued the application was an abuse of process because the Applicants were neither substituted before the lower court nor before the appeal. The court rejected this, holding that the limited grant sufficed and that substitution before filing the appeal is what matters. The court found no prejudice would be suffered by the Respondent and dismissed the abuse-of-process objection.
Legal principles established
#- Extension of time is an equitable remedy available only to a deserving party at the court's discretion, and the delay must be explained to the satisfaction of the court.
- An applicant for extension of time need not be substituted before the lower court; what matters is substitution before filing the appeal.
Court orders
#- 1.Extension of time granted and appeal to be filed within 14 days of 11th December 2025
- 2.Costs of the application to abide the outcome of the appeal
- On appeal from
- Principal Magistrate's Court, Tawa
- Tawa ELC No. E002 of 2023
- Jurisdiction invoked
- Inherent discretion to extend time to file an appeal out of time
Key timeline
#Practical implications
#Frequently asked questions
#Cite this brief
#Cite this brief
Caselaw, "Kaki & another v Kiamba (Environment and Land Miscellaneous Case E029 of 2025) [2025] KEELC 8644 (KLR)", Case Analysis (2025). Notice of motion dated 15th September 2025 (arising from Tawa ELC No. E002 of 2023). Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keelc/2025/8644/eng@2025-12-11
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