JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The appellant, Peter Gathuru Karanja, has appealed against his conviction of manslaughter and three years’ imprisonment. He was tried and convicted by Mrs Justice Aluoch for unlawfully killing Joseph Mathenge in the morning of February 16, 1983 at Tursker village in Nairobi.
His appeal is on the grounds that, the learned judge misdirected herself in holding that the defence of self defence was not available to him without giving sufficient reasons; she also misdirected herself in failing to consider prosecution witness, James David Ngandu (PW 2), Peter Maithya Mwenga (PW 4), Benson Mugo Kinge (PW 5), John Mwai Mbutu (PW 6) and Peterson Muriuki Waigoro (PW 7) unreliable, since she rejected their evidence that the appellant was not drunk on the material day and she erred in holding that the injuries the deceased sustained could not have been caused by a fall on a hard floor.
According to the evidence on record, the incident which led to the death of Mathenge was in a …