JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
From the “petitions of appeal” filed by the three appellants in person, and from the elaborate supplementary memorandum of appeal filed by the advocate who now appears for them before us, Mr. Menezes, this appeal promised to raise some weighty issues of law at the hearing. But it was an anticlimax. It turned out, and learned Senior Principal State Counsel Mr. Musau conceded it, that a crucial part of the trial was conducted by a prosecutor who was not qualified to do so, thus vitiating the whole trial. The only issue was therefore whether there ought to be a retrial of the appellants.
The appeal arose from the conviction and sentence of the three appellants, who with four others, were convicted of a series of robberies with violence which occurred between 22nd and 23rd March, 1998 in Busia District, Western Province. It was alleged that the gang of seven robbers, while armed with dangerous or offensive weapons, namely, pangas, rungus and axes, robbed four different…