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Case Note

Case Notes & Commentary
ODPC & High Court, Kenya
One ruling, digested on its own — the facts, the holding, and the practice point
[2026] KEHC 3911

A phone-records petition against a bank collapses as a collateral attack on a succession case

Chege v Sholei

Petition dismissed Case Note Data Protection · Administrative Law
By the Editorial Board, Muchangi Patrick & Co. Advocates

A petitioner alleged her private phone messages had been accessed without authorisation and used as evidence in a separate Succession Cause, in breach of Article 31. The Court held the real dispute was the admissibility of that evidence in the Succession Cause — a question for the Succession Court, by appeal or review, not a fresh constitutional petition running in parallel. Allowing the petition to proceed would have undermined the finality of the Succession proceedings by attacking them collaterally.

Practice pointNot every privacy grievance is a constitutional question. Where a properly seized court has already ruled, or is seized, of the underlying evidentiary dispute, the doctrine of constitutional avoidance requires that route to be exhausted first — a fresh petition is not a second bite at the same evidentiary objection.
Cite this page: Muchangi Patrick & Co. Advocates, "A phone-records petition against a bank collapses as a collateral attack on a succession case: Chege v Sholei" (dataprivacyadvocates.co.ke, 2026) <https://dataprivacyadvocates.co.ke/case-chege-v-sholei.html>.
How this touches a live ODPC matter

Whether you are defending a complaint, appealing a determination, or bringing a privacy claim of your own, the forum you choose and the procedural record you build early usually decide the outcome.

Muchangi Patrick & Co. Advocates represents complainants and respondents before the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and on appeal, judicial review and constitutional petition before the High Court.

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