RULING OF THE COURT
Even though he had been charged on the main count of robbery with violence contrary to section 296 of the Penal Code, the applicant Abdi Rashid Aden Hussein was acquitted on it and convicted on the alternative lesser charge of handling stolen goods. For that he was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.
He was aggrieved and filed Criminal Appeal No. 3 of 2012 before the High Court at Garissa. The appeal was heard by Muchemi and Mutuku, JJ. who not only dismissed it, but, having come to the conclusion that the evidence established that the appellant was guilty of the main charge, proceeded to convict him on the same. The learned Judges then sentenced him to suffer death as by law prescribed.
That disastrous turn of events provoked a second appeal to this Court. Before that appeal was heard, however, the Supreme Court decided, in FRANCIS KARIOKO MURUATETU and ANOR v. REPUBLIC [2017] eKLR, that the mandatory nature of the death sentence was unconstitutional as it deprive…