ROBERT MUINDE MBATHI V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT

This is a second appeal in a matter in which the appellant Robert Muinde Mbathi was convicted of the offence of stealing from the person contrary to section 279 (a) of the Penal Code and sentenced to three years imprisonment together with five strokes of corporal punishment. His first appeal to the High Court was dismissed summarily. The appellant now appeals to this court. The main ground of the appeal is that the High Court ought not to have dismissed the appeal summarily. Mr Nyamwamu took the point that matters of law had been raised in the petition of the appeal to the High Court and that therefore it was not a case in which the High Court could dismiss the first appeal summarily by virtue of section 352 of the Criminal Procedure Act. State Counsel conceded the appeal on this point and going further he conceded that the conviction of the appellant cold not be sustained on the evidence presented to the court.

Looking at the evidence it is clear that the complainant who had h…