JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
CHARLES BUNDI IRINGO, the 1st appellant, and JOSEPH MUCHOKI MUTHONI, the 2nd appellant, were together with another person charged in the magistrate’s court at Murang’a with robbery with violence contrary to section 296(2) of the Penal Code. They were convicted and sentenced to death. Their first appeals to the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi (Patel and Tuiyot JJ) were however dismissed on 22nd February, 2003. They now appeal to this Court by way of a second appeal.
The brief summary of the pertinent evidence is as follows. At about 2 a.m. during the night of 31st November, 1998, Elizabeth Kamau (PW1), her husband Moses Kamau, and their children Jennifer Kamau (PW2) and Jonathan Kamau (PW3) were asleep in their house at Iteru Village in Maragua District when they were attacked by an armed gang of about five robbers who broke into the house. The gang was armed with arrows, pangas and axes. They proceeded to beat the members of the family while demanding money. Moses K…