STEPHEN MUHUNI V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

The appellant STEPHEN MUHUNI was charged with the murder of his neighbour, Mwangi Mucheke, at Murunyu Farm in Nakuru District on the 8^th day of April, 1988. Upon arraignment before the High Court at Nakuru he pleaded guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. He now appeals against that sentence as being manifestly harsh and excessive.

The facts which the prosecution relied and which were accepted by the appellant at his trial were that while the appellant was in his mother's house the deceased went there to shelter from the rain and whilst therein a misunderstanding arose between them during the course of which the accused was hit with an iron bar. He retaliated by knocking down the deceased and inflicting upon him multiple injuries all over the body. As a result of all those injuries, the deceased fell down and died later the same night. The post-mortem examination report certified the cause of death to have been as a …