Does time in remand count towards your sentence?
Criminal Procedure Code · sources read 4 Oct 2026
Yes. A prison sentence starts on the day it is pronounced, but if you were held in custody before sentence, the court must take that time into account.
- Deadline
- An appeal must be lodged within 14 days of the sentence. The court can allow a late appeal for good cause, for example if you could not get a copy of the judgment in time.
- Where
- The High Court (appeal or revision); if you are in prison, the officer in charge of the prison can help you lodge an appeal
Steps
- If the sentence did not take your remand time into account, you can appeal to the High Court against a magistrate's court decision.
- Even if you pleaded guilty, you can still appeal on how long or how lawful the sentence is.
- The High Court can also call for and check the record of a magistrate's court case to see if a sentence is correct and legal (revision).
Watch out
- The sentence itself still counts from the day it is pronounced; the law does not set a fixed formula for how remand time is taken into account.
- If you are convicted of another offence while serving a sentence, the new sentence runs after the first one unless the court orders them to run together.
Who this covers
- Anyone sentenced to imprisonment who was held in custody (remand) before being sentenced.
Official sources (2)
- Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 75) new.kenyalaw.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Penal Code (Cap. 63), Revised Edition 2014 [2012] probation.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026