RICHARD C BIEGON V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

The appellant was convicted by a District Magistrate at Sotik on May 1983, of an unlawful assault causing actual bodily harm, contrary to Section 251 of the Penal Code.

He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 14 strokes corporal punishment by the Resident Magistrate, Kericho on June 2 1983.

He appealed from the conviction and the sentence on June 13 1983, and his appeal was summarily rejected by the High Court Judge at Nakuru, on February 29 1984. A possible delay of 8 months seems over lengthy.

The grounds of his appeal, from the subordinate court(s) to the High Court, was that, his trial was a nullity since he pleaded not guilty to this charge but the first magistrate entered a plea of guilty to the charge and then transferred the case to the Resident Magistrate for sentence.

This is, in effect, his only ground in his appeal to this court, filed in this registry on March 27 1984 and his supplementary grounds produced today. Yet, the record of the District Magis…