Through legal notice number 29 of 2009, the Attorney General delegated his powers of law revision to the National Council for Law Reporting. The Revision of the Laws Act is the Act of Parliament that gives the Attorney General power to revise the laws.

Our laws are amended in real time. The turn around time between passing of an amendment and effecting the same online is between 0 to 24 hrs on the higher side.

On the Laws of Kenya tab, the icon ‘Selected PDF Statutes’ contains the several statutes that have been fully revised and converted into the format. This category is however not exhaustive as the revision process is still ongoing. All the laws can be obtained under the ‘Laws of Kenya Database’.

Because Rules, Regulations, and Orders are made under an enabling Act of Parliament and indeed form part of an Act, they are included in the parent statute after the principal part of the respective Acts as ‘SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION’.

Moreover, under the ‘Legal Notices’ tab on our online site, one can be able to pick out the particular Rule/ Regulation separately as they are arranged according to years, months and the legal notice numbers.

Most of the Repealed laws are retained in the Laws of Kenya database clearly indicated as (repealed) in their titles. Moreover, a new tab in the laws of Kenya landing page marked as ‘Repealed statutes’ contains these repealed laws.

Revoked Rules and Regulations are however completely deleted and replaced.

NCLR receives majority of its legislative material from Government Press, Parliament and in some cases the Attorney-General’s Office.

NCLR receives majority of its legislative material from Government Press, Parliament and in some cases the Attorney-General’s Office.

In most cases, the Council receives the copies of legislation soon after publication in the Kenya gazette. According to the new Constitution, the gazettement should be within seven days after the Presidential assent. As a general rule, NCLR does not publish material that is not formalized by way of a legal instrument such as the Kenya Gazette.

Not necessarily. Publication is only a step in formalization and publicizing legislative material. While few Acts may indicate (usually the first section of the Act) that they come into operation upon publication, some Acts will give their commencement as ‘by notice’ meaning the responsible Minister is to gazette the commencement of an Act at a later date. According to Article 116 of the Constitution, an Act of Parliament comes into force on the fourteenth day after its publication in the Gazette unless the Act stipulates a different date on or time at which it will come into force.

Regrettably, NCLR is not in a position to respond to inquiries seeking legal advice or opinion, the interpretation of provisions of law, the evaluation of judicial opinions or any other similar inquiries. The Council is only a publisher of legal information and it does not provide legal opinions or advice. All the information found on its website as well as any documents, communications or information received through any of its services is provided for public informational purposes only and not as legal advice. One would need to seek the services of a lawyer or relevant professional bodies for legal advice.

NCLR is a Free and Open Access Institution and understands the need to make public legal information including the laws accessible to the public. We only charge a nominal fee to help us recover the cost of printing and sustaining our operations. At the moment, NCLR does not have all the laws in print form. The online version is however available for free and users can refer to the product catalogue section for an update on the products available and their pricing.

The Grey book and indeed other specialized volumes are in loose leaf format, making amending easier. Print copies are amended periodically on demand on payment of a minimal fee by presenting the copies at the offices, subject to the availability of amending copies.

Besides the Grey Book, we have other specialized volumes such as the Land Law, Public Finance, Commercial Law and Family and Gender Law Volumes.

In an effort to make legal information more universally accessible, National Council for Law Reporting is slowly moving towards making its web content easier to access. In that regard, the use of PDF documents is slowly to be replaced by word or Microsoft office documents which are easier to download and more widely accessible.

Whereas, NCLR provides Kenya Gazette Notices online and indeed the Kenya Gazette Archives, it does not sell the print copies of the Kenya Gazette. One would need to obtain a copy from Government Press, Nairobi which publishes and distributes the copies.

At NCLR we regard customer service highly and as such we respond to queries promptly and as soon as possible. Your queries are important to us as they assist us serve you better.