Written by Lisa Murimi
The National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law) is considering introducing a premium subscription model that would require users to pay for access to certain features on its Kenya Law platform.
In a statement, the Council revealed it is currently running an anonymous public survey to gather feedback on potential paid services.
The survey, available on the newly upgraded new.kenyalaw.org website until September 12, seeks to determine which tools and content Kenyans would be willing to pay for.
“With this enhanced platform, we are exploring premium subscriptions to exclusive tools for your in-depth legal research,” part of the survey reads.
Kenya Law, previously accessible via kenyalaw.org, offers a free database of legal resources, including the Laws of Kenya, law reports, and weekly and special gazette notices.
It also provides parliamentary and county legislation reports and collaborates with universities and other institutions to promote legal excellence.
The survey indicates that possible premium features could include:
- Advanced Search for Case Law, Laws of Kenya, and Kenya Gazette databases.
- Case Citator to view case citations.
- Case History tracking from Subordinate Courts to the Supreme Court.
- Document Versioning for legislation to allow point-in-time access.
- Medium Neutral Citation (MNC) for precise case identification.
Participants are being asked which databases they use most, between Case Law, Laws of Kenya, and Kenya Gazette, and their preferred payment model, with options ranging from annual and monthly subscriptions to pay-per-view or pay-per-download.
The move signals a possible shift from Kenya Law’s entirely free access model to a tiered service designed to support more advanced legal research needs.
