Getting better search results

To carry out a search for a word or phrase on Kenya Law Online, just type one or more words and hit the 'enter' key (or click on the Search button) for a list of relevant legislation. To improve the accuracy of your search results, simply follow the search tips found in this tutorial.

Tips for Kenya Law Online's Search Features

This tutorial has tips for the following features found in the StatutesOnline Search

Keywords

It is important to choose keywords that actually appear in the content of the section, subsidiary legislation, or schedule you are searching. As legislation is drafted in technical language, you should choose keywords that are also in technical language.

For example if you want to find legislation dealing with thugs you should search for criminals

Automatic Phrase Search

By default, Kenya Law Online search takes your search term(s) as a phrase and only searches legislation where the exact phrase appears. If you wish to search legislation where all your search terms appear but not necessarily as a phrase, use the AND boolean search.

For example a search for bank account will only return results where the exact phrase bank account appears.

Automatic Exclusion of Common Words?

Kenya Law Online Search ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. If a common word has been excluded the details of the exclusion shall be displayed on the results page.

Capitalization

Kenya Law Online Searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for bank account , Bank Account , and bAnK aCcOuNt will all return the same results.

Wildcard

Kenya Law Online search supports wildcard searches. Wildcard searches allows you to search for text that either begins or ends with your search term. By using the wildcard symbol * at the beginning, end or beginning and end of your search term, you can expand the scope of your results.

For example to search for bank, banker, or banking, use the search term bank*

"AND" searches

If you use the logical AND operator between your keywords, Kenya Law Online search returns legislation that includes all of your search terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the keywords are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more keywords. For example, to find legislation where the word bank and the word account appear, simply type bank and account

"OR" searches

Kenya Law Online search supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use the operator OR between terms.

For example, to search for legislation where either bank or account appear simply type:

Graded Search

This database allows boolean searches on the Laws of Kenya. A boolean search allows you to use the keywords AND and OR to improve the relevancy of your search results.

By default, any Search Term entered in the Search box is taken as a phrase search. For example by entering core capital the Kenya Law Online search will return results where the whole word "core capital" appears. If you want to search for content where the word "core" and the word "capital" appear but not necessarily as a phrase you would then use the AND keyword. The search term would appear as core and capital

What is a full-text search?

The full-text search means that the search engine searches each word of every record in the Kenya Law Online database as opposed to searching a pre-defined index. The full text search is especially helpfull in ensuring that changes to the text (amendments) will automatically be picked in a search.