JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
1. The appellants, Kennedy Ochieng’ Odira, Bernard Owour Opiyo and Peter Otieno Oyare, were charged and tried for the offence of gang rape contrary to section 10 of the Sexual Offences Act. The particulars of the offence were that on 20th May, 2007, in the then Homa Bay District of the then Nyanza Province, the appellants intentionally and unlawfully gang raped AAO, a schoolgirl at [Particulars Withheld] Girls’ Secondary School. They were convicted and each sentenced to serve life imprisonment. Their appeals to the High Court were dismissed on 21st May, 2012 as “totally lacking in merit.” This is a second appeal.
Background
2. The facts as established by the two lowers courts are that the complainant, AAO, who was PW1, a seventeen-year-old student at [Particulars Withheld] Girls’ Secondary School at the time, was walking to school on Sunday 20th May 2007 at about 4.30 pm. She was wearing her school uniform and was carrying a bag. On reaching a place called [particul…