DENNIS MUASYA MUTUMA V REPUBLIC [2012] KEHC 5714 (KLR)

Facts

The appellant was charged with robbery with violence and convicted by the Chief Magistrate's Court, Machakos. The High Court of Kenya at Nairobi transferred the appeal to the High Court of Kenya at Machakos in 2002, but the appeal has not been heard and determined due to the loss of the trial court's record and police file.

Issues

1. The learned magistrate erred in law and facts in upholding the evidence of PW1 without considering the circumstances under which the identification was made.
2. The learned magistrate erred in law and facts in failing to appreciate the facts that circumstances evidence can be fabricated to cast suspicion on the other and thus the planting of the exhibit in the case were not excluded with moral certainty.
3. The learned magistrate erred in law and facts in failing to find the prosecution as a whole was filled with loopholes and inconsistencies which ought to have resolved in the appellant's favour.
4. The prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt the charge as laid in the charge sheet.

Reasoning

The court found that the appeal could not be heard due to the loss of the trial court's record and police file, and that retrying the case would be impractical due to the passage of time and the difficulty in reconstructing the evidence.

Outcome

Appeal allowed, conviction quashed, sentence set aside