PATRICK NYAGUNDIOBEGE V. REPUBLIC

JUDGEMENT OF THE COURT

Patrick Nyagundi Obege, the appellant, was convicted of June 13, 1983 by the High Court (Schofield, J.) in Kisumu.

The appellant has asked this court to reduce the sentence. The former Court of Appeal for Eastern African declared it might alter a sentence imposed by the trial court only if it were evident that it acted on a wrong principle or overlooked some material factor or if the sentence were manifestly excessive in all the circumstances of the case. Ogalo Owuora v. R. (1954), 21 EACA 270. This court follows the same rule.

He was charged on June 13, 1983 with murdering Dominic Olaga Ombima (Olaga) on June 13, 1980 at Reru, a village in the Kisumu District of the Province of Nyanza and he pleaded not guilty.

He offered a plea of guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and this was accepted by the learned senior state counsel and the Judge (it seems) and the lesser charge was then substituted, read to him and his plea recorded.

The facts of the case, accordin…