THE JUDICIARY

GUIDE ON COURT
RECORDS DISPOSAL
INTRODUCTION

All High Court Staff share a responsibility for records management. Each court station is encouraged
to integrate a regular records disposal conduct into their routine operations to ensure that records are
disposed of appropriately and in a timely manner.

SCOPE

This Guide is intended to be used by all High Court Station in Kenya, particularly those station who have
never undertaken disposal activities before and those stations that generate huge numbers of record.

The purpose of the guide is to inform judicial officers and staff of their record keeping obligations and
provide guidelines and procedures to assist with records disposal.

THE RECORDS MANAGEMENT CONTEXT

Legislative requirements govern how we access, capture, control, dispose of, store and otherwise
manage our business records.

The Judiciary (including its subsidiaries) is considered a public agency in the Republic of Kenya and is
therefore subject to the Records Disposal Act Chapter 14.

This legislation is supplemented by the following The Kenyan Judiciary policy and procedures relating
to records management:

• Records Management Policy

• High Court Registry Manual

• Magistrate/Kadhis Registry Manual

FEEDBACK

The Office of The Registrar High Court welcome feedback on this Guide and how it can be improved to
suit the needs of Appraisal and Disposal of High Court records. Please send any suggestions via

Email: registrarhighcourt.@court.go.ke or registrarhighcourt2015@gmail.com

OR
To: The Registrar High Court
P.O. Box 30041-00100, Nairobi
PREPARATION FOR APPRAISAL EXERCISE

The High Court Registry Manual provides that there shall be continuous appraisal and appropriate
disposal of court records while adhering to laid down procedures. Prior to commencing the record
disposal process the Deputy Registrar shall conduct a survey to ascertain the volume, state, and location
for records for appraisal. The survey shall include perusal of the case registers and case tracking system
for information on concluded files. A physical audit shall then be carried out under supervision of the
registry supervisors to confirm the number of concluded files. The number of concluded files should be
tabulated in the format indicated in Annexure A. This information shall be used by the Deputy Registrar
to formulate a plan in consultation with the Court Administrator and Archivist for the Appraisal exercise.

Appraisal Processes

1. The team is briefed on the assignment by the Deputy Registrar and all materials and space
required for the exercise shall be availed at the station level. Any additional support required
shall be sought prior to commencement of the exercise and shall be supported by the information
obtained above.
2. All the registers shall be availed at the start of the exercise.
3. The Court Administrator shall ensure that results of concluded cases are accurately entered into
the registers.
4. Each file shall be physically perused and separated into three categories.
i. Files that are due for permanent preservation
ii. Files due for Disposal identified.
iii. Any active/pending file that may have been misfiled
5. The Case Register shall be marked in red with capital “R” for files meant to be permanent
preserved/ retention
6. Case Tracking System shall be updated
7. Details of the outcome of the appraisal exercise shall be captured in the Appraisal and Disposal
of Records Data Collection Form
8. A list in the designated format is prepared listing all the cases due for disposal.
9. A Draft Gazette Notice for Disposal shall be prepared and signed by the Deputy Registrar
10. The Draft Gazette Notice is forwarded by the Deputy Registrar to the Registrar, High Court for
gazettement in the Kenya Gazette.
11. The Office Registrar, High Court will communicate to the Deputy Registrar once the notice is
gazetted.
12. An extract of the gazette notice shall be displayed prominently at the Court’s Notice Board and
Kenya Law Report and any other forum as it may be approved from time to time by the Registrar
High Court
13. Upon the expiry of three months after gazettement, the Deputy Registrar will make a formal
request to the Hon Chief Justice through the Registrar, High Court, seeking authority from the
Hon Chief Justice to destroy the records.
 14. Once authority is granted the Deputy Registrar shall ensure that all earmarked records are
destroyed in the presence of the Deputy Registrar or any other authorized officer, in accordance
with NEMA regulations.
15. Upon destruction the court shall prepare a Certificate of Destruction
16. An entry is then made in the Case Register in Red indicating the date of destruction just next to
Letter “D”. Appropriate entries will also be made of the destruction in the electronic case register.

Figure 1: Records disposal flowchart (hardcopy records)

ANNEXURE A

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT………………

CASE FILE PHYSICAL AUDIT DATA COLLECTION TEMPLATE

CASE TYPE LOCATION OF YEAR NUMBER OF ACTIVE FILES NUMBER OF CONCLUDED FILES
FILES

Prepared by:………………………………… Date:……………………………

Signature……………………………………….

Registry Supervisor:…………………………. Date:…………………………..

Signature:……………………………………….
ANNEXTURE B

GUIDELINES ON RECORDS WHICH MAY BE DESTROYED

ANNEXTURE C

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT………………

APPRAISAL AND DISPOSAL OF RECORDS DATA COLLECTION FORM
S/No. Case Type Case No. Date Case Disposal Action
Concluded
(Tick one per file)

Preservation Destruction

Appraiser:………………………………….…Signature:………………..……………

Date:……………………………………………