Buildings that housed Kenya's first court standing 121 years on

The building that housed the oldest police station, Mombasa County,  August 13, 2021. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

Somewhere on Mombasa’s Nkrumah Street stands a 121-year-old masterpiece of the colonial European architecture that housed Kenya’s first High Court.

Her Majesty’s court of East Africa stands opposite the first prison and the first police station in the country. The three buildings have withstood the vagaries of nature and are still standing strong.

From Nkurumah Road, Ndia Kuu Street and Hinaway Road roundabout the three monuments form a triangle of a radius of 500 metres. National Museum of Kenya curator Jambo Haro says the buildings also represent evidence of the British’s early settlement in the East Africa Coast.

Before the construction of the building, according to Mr Haro, justice was being dispensed at a go-down that acted as court between 1890 and 1898.

The court was built with coral rag bound with lime mortar and faced with plaster. Internally they used dark, solid, well-carpentered wood for doors, staircases, shutters, balconies, and floors.

“The first British court was launched in a go-down near Mombasa Old port in 1890 by Imperial British East Africa Company in charge of the area, but in 1898 it moved into the Old Police headquarters opposite the entrance to Fort Jesus, where the curio market is now,” explains the curator.

He says a British barrister established Kenya’s justice system in 1890. On December 31, 1902, Commissioner Sir Charles Eliot opened a new building with a European architect. “The monument with rich historical value is where the first High Court in Kenya was established before being moved to Nairobi in 1911,” he said.

Before 1902, the High Court was only in Zanzibar, whose functions were all moved to Mombasa immediately Eliot opened it on December 31. According to Haro, Mombasa Old Court is among the historical monuments being conserved by the National Museum of Kenya (NMK). It was gazetted as a monument in 1984.

NMK Director-General Richard Leakey played a crucial role in 1983 to ensure the building was conserved. He wrote several letters in the 1980s to the then Attorney General Mathew Muli, culminating in the building being classified as a monument in 1985 when it was gazetted.

“I believe that it has been agreed in principle for some years that the building is of historical interest and should be preserved,” stated Dr Leakey in a letter to Muli dated September 6, 1983.

In an interview, Haro explained that after being gazetted in 1985, NMK spent Sh200 million for its conservation.

The court was built with coral rag bound with lime mortar and faced with plaster. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

The building is where Kenya’s first Chief Justice Sir Robert William had his chamber after being appointed in 1906, until 1911, when the High Court was moved to Nairobi.

The lower courts under the jurisdiction of the magistrate continued to operate in the same place until after independence.

Haro, a senior curator at NMK, regrets that the first police station headquarters in the country is depleted and is on the verge of collapse. The house is now private property.

He said NMK has no funds to preserve the first colonial police station building, unless the government compensates the owners for the museum to take it over for preservation.

The records in the museum show the first person at the courts were Indians who were practicing at the Bombay High Court legal system that was brought to Mombasa.

In 1911, Haro says, the High Court was moved to Nairobi and the Indian British legal practice was substituted with the English practice.

Kenyans of Indian descent who had been exposed to British education went to study law and when they returned, they established Law firms opposite Mombasa Old Court.

Lawyer Kamudeen Ali Mohamed Kasmani is among the Kenyans who went to the United Kingdom. He qualified as a barrister in 1957.

Kasmani, 83, says when he returned to Kenya, he established a Law firm in a building opposite Mombasa Law Court in 1957, where he practiced until he retired about 10 years ago.

“I am the third generation of my father, who came to Mombasa in 1885 after a dhow they were sailing aboard using monsoon winds could not sail back to India,” says Kasmani.

The main courts lay on either side of the central block, which is now the Court of Appeal on the left and Employment Labour Court on the right as one walks into the rail fence from Nkrumah avenue.

Beyond the courtyard, upstairs, there are Labour Court registries on the left and Judges’ Chambers, and the right side is occupied by court personnel.