JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The Appellant, who was the 1st Accused in the trial before the learned Senior Principal Magistrate, Malindi, was convicted on 16th October, 1997, by that Senior Principal Magistrate, of the offense of robbery with violence and sentenced to death.
The background to this was that at about 10:00 p.m. in the night of 2nd June, 1997, some people broke into the house of Alice Wieland, a retired Swiss nurse, at Timboni, Watamu, and during the course of which, she was beaten, threatened with a knife and her pistol, tied up with a rope and pushed onto her bed. Among her things that were stolen by these people were her pistol and bullets, money consisting of about Kshs.72,000/- and some Swiss Francs, a camera, a gold bracelet, gold chain necklaces, a ring and two wrist watches.
Alice Wieland in her evidence said that she was able, during the burglary, to see one of the burglars by means of the light of her torch-light which the burglars were using to look for her things. She …