27/03/2026
I am not in the business of giving legal opinions and advise in the social media but having been tagged in this post by some of you, some of whom we are in the process of commiting them to Civil jail, I decided to write something about it.
I have read this judgment and I confidently say that this is not the true position.
I agree that in Eldoret High Court Petition E008 of 2024 as consolidated with E010 of 2024, the three judge bench of the High Court which included the judge in the current case found that the Small Claims Court has no jurisdiction to commit judgement debtors to Civil jail, for the reasons that commital to civil jail is not a mode of ex*****on contemplated by the Small Claims Court Act under but only incorporated by way of reference.
In the current case, the Court did not say that a judgment debtor cannot be committed to Civil Jail.
No, the normal magistrates Court can still commit you to civil jail provided that they strictly follow the law, which includes notice, payment of your subsistence by the decree holder and upon satisfying itself that you are a man of means who only wants to frustrate the process of ex*****on.
The funniest thing that I found in that judgment is the opinion by the learned judge that those people who self represent themselves in the small claims court should have the defence of ignorance of the law.
That ignorance of the law should not be held against them.
