MENU

Section 815 of The Companies Act No. 17 of 2015: Issue of warrants to enter and search premises

    

(1) On an application made on oath given by or on behalf of an inspector appointed by the Court or by the Attorney-General, a magistrate may issue a warrant under this section if satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that on specified premises there are documents whose production has been required under this Part and that have not been produced in compliance with the requirement.
(2) A magistrate may also issue a warrant under this section if satisfied on information on oath given by or on behalf of such an inspector—
that there are reasonable grounds for believing that an offence has been committed for which the penalty on conviction is imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, or a fine of not less than five hundred thousand shillings, and that there are on specified premises documents relating to whether the offence has been committed;
(b) that the inspector has power to require the production of the documents under this Part; and
(c) that there are reasonable grounds for believing that, if production was so required, the documents would not be produced but would be removed from the premises, hidden, tampered with or destroyed.
(3) A warrant under this section authorises the inspector named in it, together with any other person so named and any police officer, to do all or any of the following—
(a) to enter the premises specified in the information, using such force as is reasonably necessary for the purpose;
(b) to search the premises and take possession of any documents appearing to be documents of the kind referred to in subsection (1) or (2), or to take, in relation to any such documents, any other action that may appear to be necessary for preserving them or preventing interference with them;
(c) to take copies of any such documents;
(d) to require any person named in the warrant to provide an explanation of the documents or to state where they may be found.
(4) If, in the case of a warrant under subsection (2), the magistrate is satisfied on information on oath that there are reasonable grounds for believing that there are also on the premises other documents relevant to the investigation, the magistrate shall also authorise in the warrant the actions referred to in subsection (3) to be taken in relation to those documents.
(5) A warrant issued under this section has effect until the end of one month from and including the day on which it is issued.
(6) A document of which possession is taken under this section can be retained
—
(a) for a period of three months; or
(b) if within that period proceedings to which the documents are relevant are commenced against any person for any criminal offence, until the conclusion of those proceedings.
(7) Any person who—
(a) intentionally obstructs the exercise of a power conferred by a warrant issued under this section; or
(b) fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement imposed in accordance with subsection (3)(d), commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings.
(8) For the purposes of section 816, documents obtained under this section are to be treated as if they had been obtained under the provision of this Part under which their production was or could have been required.

« Previous:   Section 814 - Power to bring civil proceedings on company’s behalf          Next: »   Section 816 - Protection in relation to certain disclosures: information provided to Attorney General

Disclaimer: This document is not to be taken as legal advise.

Enhance Your Research with Bookmarks and Annotations

Here's how you can use these features:

  • To bookmark this page, click the "Bookmark this Page" button below the document title.
  • To add an annotation, highlight text in the document and select "Add Annotation" from the toolbar that appears.
  • These features are great for organizing your research and keeping track of key information.
  • You can view and manage your bookmarks and annotations on your Bookmarks and Annotations page.

Cited By:

More Sections