The High Court in Eldoret has ordered the release of a man incarcerated in civil jail at the Eldoret G.K. Prison for failing to settle a debt of Ksh788,961.81.

Justice Reuben Nyakundi in his ruling on March 19, 2026, stated that the Eldoret Small Claims Court errored in arresting and jailing Barnaba Ngeno for 30 days.

The judge noted that the decision by the learned trial adjudicator at small claims court at Eldoret to commit Ngeno to civil jail was an illegal, irregular, unjust, improper and wrong exercise of discretion.

Judge Nyakundi noted that considering the facts of the case, a declaration ought to be issued that there is prima facie evidence that there was infringement and violation of the rights of Ngeno hinging on the application of Sections 38 & 40 of the Civil Procedure Act and Arts 25(A), 26, 27, 28, 29, 47, 48 & 50 of the Constitution.

“That the proceedings which were instituted to move and arrest and subsequently commit him to civil jail for 30 days were illegal, irregular, and unjust; the best thing is to set them aside as being voidable ab initio. It is so ordered,” Justice Nyakundi ruled.

In addition, Justice Nyakudi stated that the court cannot send people to prison because of poverty and consequent inability to meet contractual liability.

“To be poor, in this land of daridra narayana, is no crime, and to recover debts by the procedure of putting one in prison is too flagrantly violative of Article 21 unless there is proof of the minimal fairness of his wilful failure to pay in spite of his sufficient means and absence of more terribly pressing claims on his means,” the judge stated in his judgement.

“Unreasonableness and unfairness in such a procedure is inferable from Article 11 of the covenant. But this is precisely the interpretation we have put on the provision to 51 of CPC, and the lethal blow of Article 21 cannot strike down the provision as now interpreted.”