Jane Nambuye Manyonge v Republic

Witnesses perceive things differently, so some discrepancies are inevitable. Section 382 of the Criminal Procedure Code requires an appellate court to ask whether discrepancies are so fundamental as to cause prejudice. The trial court considered the inconsistencies and found them minor; this court agreed they were immaterial and did not affect the prosecution case materially.

An alibi places the accused elsewhere. The appellant's own account placed her in the house with the deceased, and her shifting explanations (fall from a stool, chest pains, a bottle of beer) were contradicted by the blood stains on the walls, the absence of broken glass or a blood trail, and the unexplained delay in seeking help.

The appellant and deceased were the only people in the house; the deceased was found dead with blood stains throughout; a blood-stained knife was recovered; the appellant gave contradictory accounts; there was no blood trail elsewhere; there was an attempt to clean the scene; and the fatal stab wound was inconsistent with the appellant's explanation.

Section 206 deems malice aforethought established by, among other things, an intention to cause death or grievous harm. A stab wound executed so deeply that it punctured the left lung could only have been inflicted by a person bent on causing death or grievous harm; both courts below rejected the appellant's explanation.

Muruatetu declared section 204 invalid insofar as it prescribes a mandatory death sentence for murder. The trial judge had stated she had no discretion to vary the death penalty. Exercising the restored discretion, and noting the appellant was a first offender, the court substituted a twenty-year term running from the date of the original sentence.