Faulty charge sheet saves three from life sentence

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The robbers argued that the sentence imposed on them was bad in law. [Courtesy]

Three robbery convicts have convinced the Court of Appeal to reverse their life imprisonment over a faulty charge sheet.
Damson Okumu Abuyabo, Hesbon Okumu Wanga and Ramadhan Ashiko Omwira had gotten a life sentence in their first appeal at the High Court of Kakamega in 2016 when they sought to overturn a 10-year sentence imposed on them by Mumias magistrate’s court in 2012 for robbery with violence.
In 2021, they filed another appeal at the Court of Appeal in Kisumu, citing the faulty charge sheet and the fact that the High Court in Kakamega never warned, as required by law, that their sentence could be enhanced when they launched the 2016 appeal before it.
The judges said it was within the powers of the Mumias court to amend the charge sheet just like it was the duty of the High Court in Kakamega to caution the robbers that their sentence could be enhanced at their first appeal.
“Given the concession by the State that the trio was not warned that their sentence could be enhanced and our own finding that no such warning was given, we are constrained to find in favour of them with respect to the issue of sentence.
“We set aside the sentence of death imposed by the first appellate court and substitute therefore the sentence of ten years’ imprisonment imposed by the trial court,” said the judges.
The robbers had argued that the death sentence imposed on them was bad in law, citing the decision in Francis Karioko Muruatetu and Another verses Republic 2017, saying that the Supreme Court had held the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional.
They contend that none of the victims or prosecution witnesses in the case suffered grave injuries and none lost their life. 

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