JUDGMENT
The appellant together with one James Kariuki Mwati (A1) (hereafter referred to as J K Mwati) and one Joseph Mureithi Mburu (A3) was charged with offence of robbery contrary to section 296 (1) of the Penal Code J K Mwati (A1) and the appellant both pleaded guilty to the offence, admitted the facts as stated by the prosecutor, and were thereafter convicted on plea. After listening to their pleas in mitigation the trial magistrate sentenced each of them to a period of 10 years’ imprisonment with corporal punishment of 10 strokes of the cane on 18th February, 1991. J K Mwati appealed to the High Court against the sentence and the appellant appealed to the High Court against conviction and sentence.
For some reason which is not clear from the files of the two lower courts, the two appeals were not heard together. Tanui, J heard the appeal filed by J K Mwati (A1) and on 18th October, 1991, set aside the sentence passed by the magistrate and substituted it with a sentence of 4 years’…