Egesa v Republic (Criminal Appeal E177 of 2022) [2026] KECA 984 (KLR)
The bottom line
#Kenya's Court of Appeal confirmed that time spent in prison before sentencing must be deducted from a convict's sentence.
What this practically means
#Executive summary
#Questions the Court framed
#The issues the Court set itself to decide, in its own words.
- 1.Whether the period spent by the appellant in pre-sentence custody during the trial should be taken into account in the computation of his sentence
Key legal issues
#Credit for time spent in pre-sentence custody
The appeal was allowed to the limited extent that the appellant's pre-trial and pre-sentence custody must be credited against his sentence.
The appellant, appearing virtually from prison, limited the appeal to sentence and sought that the period spent in custody during trial be taken into account. The respondent's counsel, the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, conceded that the trial court had not taken that period into account. On that concession the Court allowed the appeal solely on computation of the sentence, fixing the custody period as 24th November 2014 to 18th January 2016. No other ground was adjudicated.
Legal principles established
#- The period spent by an accused person in custody during trial, before sentencing, must be taken into account in the computation of the sentence imposed.
Court orders
#- 1.That the appeal is allowed to the extent that the period spent in pre-sentence custody between 24th November 2014 and 18th January 2016 shall be taken into account in the computation of the appellant's sentence
The bench
#One judgment of the whole court — no separate or dissenting opinions.
- Jurisdiction invoked
- Not stated in the judgment (first appellate/criminal appeal jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal inferred from the hearing of a criminal appeal; no constitutional or statutory provision is cited)
Relief refused
#Any wider challenge to the conviction or the sentence itself
The appellant expressly limited the appeal to the question of sentence only, confined to credit for time spent in custody during trial
Costs
No costs order is recorded in the judgment
Quotable passages
#Verbatim from the judgment, each located to the page it appears on in the official PDF — so these can be cited and checked directly.
the appellant's appeal is allowed to the extent that the period spent in pre-sentence custody between 24th November 2014 and 18th January 2016 shall be taken into account in the computation of the appellant's sentence.
Issues in the judgment
#The judgment does not state the appeal case number, the lower court decision, the offence, the sentence imposed, or any costs order, which limits the brief's identifiability.
No judge is identified as authoring the single judgment; only a signature block appears.
Key timeline
#Practical implications
#Frequently asked questions
#Cite this brief
#Cite this brief
Caselaw, "Egesa v Republic (Criminal Appeal E177 of 2022) [2026] KECA 984 (KLR)", Case Analysis (2026). Not stated in the judgment. Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keca/2026/984/eng@2026-05-18
Suggested citation format for research notes or client memos. Always verify the original judgment before relying on any point.