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{
    "id": 602647,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/602647/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 587,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Chepkong’a",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1154,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kiprono Chepkonga",
        "slug": "samuel-kiprono-chepkonga"
    },
    "content": "to or returning from the Court; (b) interrupts or obstructs the proceedings of the Court; or (c) without lawful excuse disobeys an order or direction of the Court in the course of the hearing of a proceeding, commits an offence. (3) In the case of civil proceedings, the willful disobedience of any judgment, decree, direction, order, or other process of a court or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court constitutes contempt of court. (4) In the case of criminal proceedings, the publication, whether by words, spoken or written, by signs, visible representation, or otherwise, of any matters or the doing of any other act which— (a) scandalizes or tends to scandalize, or lowers or tends to lower the judicial authority or dignity of the court; (b) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct the administration of justice, constitutes contempt of court. (5) A police officer, with or without the assistance of any other person, may, by order of a judge of the Court, take into custody and detain a person who commits an offence under subsection (2) until the rising of the Court. (6) The Court may sentence a person who commits an offence under subsection (1) to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings, or both. (7) A person may appeal against an order of the Court made by way of punishment for contempt of court as if it were a conviction and sentence made in the exercise of the ordinary original criminal jurisdiction of the Court. (8) The Chief Justice may make Rules to regulate procedures relating to contempt of court. We are seeking to provide penalties for contempt of court. That is imprisonment for a maximum of six months or a fine not exceeding Kshs500,000. This is purely to expand the definition of contempt. As you know, many a times the courts have what they think in their view is contempt. What we must now provide in the law is what we think is contempt, so that every person who appears before a judge in a Court of Appeal knows what amounts to contempt, so that you are not surprised when judges decide that your conduct is contemptuous. So, we are making it very clear in the law that this is the process and this is what amounts to contempt. We are also prescribing the penalties, so that it is also not arbitrary. Once you are sentenced for contempt, you know how much you are supposed to pay or what the penalty ought to be. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}