Magistrates Courts exercise criminal and civil jurisdiction as conferred on them by various statutes. The Magistrates Courts Act (No. 26 of 2015) gives effect to Articles 23(2) and 169(1)(a) and (2) of the Constitution of Kenya by providing for the jurisdiction, procedure, functions, and powers of the Magistrates Courts. The Court has further jurisdiction to preside over cases involving environment and land matters as conferred upon it by Section 26 of the Environment and Land Court Act (No. 19 of 2011); and further jurisdiction to preside over cases involving employment and labour relations as conferred upon it by Section 29 of the Employment and Labour Relations Court Act (No 20 of 2011).

The Judiciary has also established specialised Magistrates Courts to deal with specific areas of law to improve efficiency, ensure higher-quality decisions (especially in complex areas of the law) as well as enhance uniformity of decisions in those specific areas. These specialised courts include the Children’s Court, Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Court, the Counter- Terrorism Court, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Court (JKIA) and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Court. Further, the Chief Justice is permitted by law to gazette magistrates to hear specific matters such as election petitions as and when the need arises.

Currently, there are five hundred and fifty nine (559) Magistrates serving a population of about 51 million Kenyan in one hundred and forty-three 143 Magistrates Court Stations across Kenya.