JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
Edward Maruti Simiyu (appellant) was charged and tried before the Senior Resident Magistrate's Court at Bungoma with the offence of robbery with violence contrary to Section 296(2) of the Penal Code.
The appellant was found guilty of the offence, convicted and sentenced to death. Being aggrieved with the conviction and sentence he appealed before the High Court. The grounds relied upon in challenging the conviction before the High Court were basically fourfold namely: failure by the learned trial magistrate to indicate the language used by the Court; insufficient evidence; improper reliance on the doctrine of recent possession and failure to consider that crucial witnesses were not called to give evidence.
Those issues were addressed before the High Court and in a detailed Judgment, Onyancha and Muchemi, JJ. dismissed the appeal thereby provoking this second appeal.
By dint of the provisions of Sections 361 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) only issues of law fall…