PAUL NAKWALE EKAI V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT

After a trial which lasted over three months at Nyeri the appellant, Paul Nakwale Ekai, was convicted of murder of Mrs. Joy Adamson in the Shaba National Game Reserve on January 3, 1980. The learned trial judge held, in accordance with the medical evidence, that the appellant was between seventeen and twenty years of age. He could not exclude the possibility that the appellant may have been under eighteen years of age on January 3, 1980 and he accordingly sentenced the appellant to be detained during the pleasure of His Excellency the President. The appellant now appeals against his conviction.

Mrs. Adamson, whose age was about seventy years, was a well-known wildlife conservationist and writer of books and articles dealing with wildlife, and an artist of repute. She lived in a tented camp fenced with barbed wire and chain wire, to which we will refer to as ‘Shaba Camp’, or ‘the camp’, within the Shaba National Game Reserve. Also living in Shaba Camp on January 3, 1980, were a …