JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The jurisdiction of this Court on a second appeal such as this one is confined to dealing with issues of law. This court will have loyalty to findings of fact of the lower courts and resist the temptation to treat findings of fact as holdings of law. We should not interfere with the decision of the trial or the first appellate court unless it is apparent that, on the evidence, no reasonable tribunal could have reached that decision - see judicial pronouncements on the effect of Section 361 (1) (a) Criminal Procedure Code in such decisions of this court as Patrick Macharia v. Republic [2010] e KLR and Daniel Wycliff Namai v. Republic (Kisumu) Criminal Appeal No. 35 of 2010 (ur) amongst others.
The appellant, Paul Odhiambo Mbola, was charged before the Chief Magistrates' Court, Kisumu, with the offence of defilement contrary to Section 8 (1) as read with Section 8 (2) of the Sexual Offences Act No. 3 of 2006. It was alleged in the charge sheet that on diverse dates b…