JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The appellant, Joseph Kazungu Kasena, was convicted on 18th July 2013 by the Chief Magistrate’s Court at Malindi for the offence of defilement contrary to section 8(1) as read with (3) of the Sexual Offences Act and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. His first appeal was dismissed by the High Court (Chitembwe, J.) on 28th October 2015, and he is now before us on a second appeal.
The evidence adduced before the trial court by five prosecu-tion witnesses is that the appellant is the brother-in-law of MJ, a class two girl, at the material time, aged 12 years. On 16th No-vember 2012, MJ visited the appellant’s home after school and at about 7.30 pm, the appellant offered to escort her back to her home. On the way, the appellant, who was armed with a panga or slasher, defiled MJ and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the defilement to any person. On reaching home, however, MJ informed her parents of the defilement and they took her to Kon-goni Health Center and su…