JUDGEMENT OF THE COURT
On 4th May 2005, after a trial in the Resident Magistrates’ Court at Vihiga, the appellants Benson Kisali M’Mbasu, Teddy Kinambuka Inyangala and Jeremiah Edegwa Lugadiru were convicted by R. O. Oganyo, Senior Resident Magistrate for the offence of robbery with violence contrary to section 296(2) of the Penal Code. They were sentenced to suffer death.
The appellants appealed to the High Court where they complained that the trial court was wrong to convict them based on unreliable evidence of identification; that the prosecution evidence was contradictory; that the burden of proof was shifted to them and that their defences were not considered. The High Court rejected their appeals in a judgment delivered on 21st May 2009.
In this second appeal, the appellants have faulted the lower courts for founding the conviction on what they say is uncorroborated evidence of a single identifying witness; that had the first appellate court properly re-evaluated the evidence it wo…