DUNCAN OKELLO OJWANG V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

Let us start by first pointing out that before the commencement of the hearing of this appeal we pointed out to the parties that a member of this bench had taken the plea of the appellant in this appeal whilst a Judge of the High Court at Kisii. We wanted to know whether that was a reason enough for the said Judge to recuse himself. The verdict of the parties was that since the Judge only took the plea and the plea was one of not guilty, and that thereafter the Judge never participated in the hearing of the case, it was not necessary for the Judge to recuse himself. It was on that basis that we proceeded with the hearing of the appeal.

DUNCAN OKELLO OJWANG, “the appellant” was charged in the High Court at Homa Bay, with the offence of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code. The particulars in the information were that on 19^th June, 2011 at Iyembe village in Ndhiwa District, Homa Bay County within the Republic of Kenya he murdered …