GEOFFREY AMIANI LUMIRA V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT

1. This is a first appeal from the Judgment of the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi (Mutuku, J.) where the appellant Geofrey Amiani Lumira was convicted for the offence of murder. He was sentenced to suffer death in a ruling delivered on 21st June, 2016. It is our duty as a first appellate court to re-evaluate the evidence and make our own conclusions as was held in the oft-cited case of Okeno v Republic [1972] EA 32 where the predecessor of this Court pronounced on that mandate:

   “An Appellant on a first appeal is entitled to expect the evidence as a whole to be submitted to a fresh and exhaustive examination (Pandya vs. Republic (1957) EA. (336) and the appellate court’s own decision on the evidence. The first appellate court must itself weigh conflicting evidence and draw its own conclusion. ( Shantilal M. Ruwala v R. [1957] EA. 570). It is not the function of a first appellate court merely to scrutinize the evidence to see if there was some evidence to support the lower court’s f…