The existence of Kadhis and their courts along the East African coast dates back to the mid-14th century when Muhammad bin Abdalla bin Battutah (d.1377), a kadhi in India, and later in the Maldives islands, visited Mogadishu, Mombasa, and Kilwa.

In 1832, Seyyid Saīdī bin Sultān (r.1804-1856) established the Būsa īdī Sultanate in Zanzibar and formally appointed kadhis and set up Kadhis’ courts across his dominions that stretched from Barawa in Somalia to Mafia Island, south of Zanzibar. From 1887, much of the East African coastal region was under the administration of the Sultanate and the Imperial British East Africa (IBEA) Company. Sultān Barghash bin Sa īdī (r.1870-1888) had given a concession for a term of 50 years to the Company to administer the Kenyan coastal strip in the name of the Sultan. The concession provided retention of Muslim judicial structures and the power of the Sultan in the appointment of Kadhis.

In October 1963, an agreement was signed by Duncan Sandays, Sayyid Jamshid, Jomo Kenyatta, and Sheikh Muhammad Shamte to surrender the ten-mile coastal strip to Kenya. Among the safeguards included in the agreement was that the freedom of worship to all people living in the strip and more particularly the citizens of the Sultan and its generations would be protected. It also provided that Kadhis’ Courts were given the mandate to take cognizance of all matters affecting the personal status of Muslims (such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance). This paved the way for retention of Kadhis’ Courts as a result of constitutional guarantees given to Muslims during the negotiations before independence.

At independence, the Kadhis’ Courts were 3. In 1967, the Kadhis’ Courts Act was passed which increased the courts to 6. They have subsequently been increased to forty two spread across the country.