Free statutory declaration template
A free statutory declaration template for Kenya, laid out to the form in the Schedule to the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act. A magistrate or commissioner for oaths takes the declaration of a person voluntarily making and subscribing it before them. Use it where a bank, registry or employer wants a fact sworn to outside court proceedings — if the document is for a case, you need an affidavit instead.
What you still need to do
- Declare it in front of the officer. Take the unsigned declaration and your ID to a commissioner for oaths or a magistrate and sign it there. Section 8 requires it to be made and subscribed before them — until that happens it is a draft, not a statutory declaration.
- Check the officer has completed the place and the date. Section 5 requires them to state both truly in the jurat.
- Make sure this is the document you were actually asked for. If it is going into a court file, you need an affidavit under Order 19 of the Civil Procedure Rules, not a declaration.
- Attach and mark every document you refer to, using your initials and a number.
- Declare only what is true. Knowingly stating something materially false in a statutory declaration is an offence under section 11 of the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act, carrying up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Why each clause is here
Every clause in this document is drawn from the provision named beside it, and the wording of each provision was read in the Act itself. Where the law fixes something a document cannot change, this is where it says so.
Section 10 of the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act says that a declaration made under the Act may be referred to in any Act or other legal document as a statutory declaration — so that is what to call it, and what the bank or registry asking for one will be looking for at the top of the page. There is no court heading and no case number, because this is not filed in any proceeding.
The Schedule to the Act gives the opening words — "I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows" — and section 8 says the declaration is taken in the form in that Schedule. The description, the address and the identity number are not in the Schedule’s skeleton, but the institution receiving the declaration has to be able to tell that the person who swore it is the person in their file, so they go in the opening sentence. Note that the words are "solemnly and sincerely declare", not "make oath and state" — those are the affidavit’s words.
The Schedule leaves a single blank — "[here state the matters declared]" — and this is it. Numbering the paragraphs is not required by the Act for a declaration as it is by Order 19 r.5 for an affidavit, but the institution reading it will refer to your paragraphs by number, so number them. Declare facts, not opinions or arguments: a declaration is a statement of what you know to be so.
🔴 These words are the Schedule’s own and should not be reworded. They are what makes the document a statutory declaration rather than an unsworn letter, and they are the hinge on which section 11 turns: knowingly and wilfully making a statement that is false in a material particular in a statutory declaration is an offence carrying up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to two thousand shillings, or both.
Section 8 requires the declaration to be made and subscribed — signed — before the magistrate or commissioner for oaths, voluntarily. You sign it in front of them, not before you arrive. Section 5 requires the officer to state truly in the jurat or attestation clause at what place and on what date the declaration is taken, which is why the place and the date are left open here for them to complete. Section 4(1) lets a commissioner for oaths act anywhere in Kenya, subject to the proviso that bars them where they are the advocate for a party in the matter, clerk to such an advocate, or interested in it.
A footer so the institution receiving the declaration knows where it came from. No Act we hold prescribes its wording, and a declaration you drew yourself is no less valid for saying so.
The provisions, in the Act’s own words
Spacing is normalised for reading. Every word is the Act’s.
A declaration made under this Act may be referred to in any Act or other legal document as a statutory declaration.
A magistrate or commissioner for oaths may take the declaration of any person voluntarily making and subscribing it before him in the form in the Schedule.
If any person knowingly and wilfully makes any statement which is false in a material particular in a statutory declaration he shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings, or to both such imprisonment and fine.
Every commissioner for oaths before whom any oath or affidavit is taken or made under this Act shall state truly in the jurat or attestation at what place and on what date the oath or affidavit is taken or made.
A commissioner for oaths may, by virtue of his commission, in any part of Kenya, administer any oath or take any affidavit for the purpose of any court or matter in Kenya … Provided that a commissioner for oaths shall not exercise any of the powers given by this section in any proceeding or matter in which he is the advocate for any of the parties to the proceeding or concerned in the matter, or clerk to any such advocate, or in which he is interested.