Criminal law – attempted robbery with violence contrary to section 297(2) of the Penal Code – additional charges of being in illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition contrary to section 4(1) of the Firearms Act – accused persons convicted on the main charge and sentenced to death and discharged under section 35(1) of the Penal Code in respect of the other counts – first appeal to the High Court against conviction and sentence dismissed – second appeal – whether section 297(2) of the Penal Code under which the appellant had been charged merely prescribed the penalty and did not define the offence of attempted robbery with violence and therefore, the charge was incurably defective – whether a charge that is incurably defective can be cured by section 382 of the Criminal Procedure Code – Constitution section 77(8) – whether the appellants  had been denied their right to a fair hearing.

[RULING] Civil Practice and Procedure-delivery of account-where there is a similar suit between the same parties pending before the court-where the respondent has not entered appearance or filed a replying affidavit nor produced copies of the pending case-whether the court can make a ruling on the application without copies of those pleadings-Civil Procedure Rules, Order LII, rules 4(1),(2) and 10(1)

Criminal law – murder contrary to section 203 and 204 of the Penal Code – plea bargaining – Republic having indicated its willingness to accept a plea of guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter at the trial – accused (appellant) having indicated his willingness to so plead but pleading not guilty when the charge was read and explained to him – appellant tried for murder but convicted of manslaughter contrary to section 202, 205 of the Penal Code – trial judge considering that the appellant’s period of five years in custody was sufficient punishment – appellant discharged under section 35(1) of the Penal Code on the condition that he would not commit any offence for a period of one year – appeal against conviction – whether the trial court had failed to properly consider the appellant’s defences of self defence and provocation – whether the appellant had used excessive force against the deceased - whether these defences were available to the appellant – Penal Code section 17 – whether the sentence imposed on the appellant was proper.

Criminal law - robbery with violence contrary to section 296(2) of the Penal Code - accused person tried and convicted on three counts and sentenced to death - accused sentenced to death on three counts and one year imprisonment on the 4th count - sentences ordered to run concurrently - appeal - EVIDENCE - identification evidence - sufficiency of evidence - whether the failure to conduct an identification was fatal to the accused's conviction

[RULING] Civil Practice and Procedure-suit-striking out-whether the omission to endorse the amended plaint with the number of the rule in pursuance of which the amendment is made is fatal to the amended plaint-Civil Procedure Rules, Order 6A, rule 7 (1)

Criminal law – robbery with violence contrary to section 296(2) – two accused persons (appellants) convicted and sentenced to death – conviction and sentence upheld by the High Court on the first appeal – CRIMINAL PROCEDURE  - plea taking – manner of taking and recording pleas - Criminal Procedure Code section 207(1) – duty of the trial court to explain the charge and all its essential ingredients to the accused person in a language he understands - the accused person’s own words in reply to be translated into English and carefully recorded – where a trial court fails to ask the accused persons to plead to the charge – issue raised for the first time in the second appeal – whether the trial of the appellants had been satisfactory – whether the irregularities and the omission arising from the lack of opportunity to plead occassioned a failure of justice – whether the irregularities, if any, were curable under section 382 of the Criminal Procedure Code – EVIDENCE – identification evidence – dock identification – whether such identification is worthless without an earlier identification parade.

Criminal law – robbery with violence contrary to section 296(2) of the Penal Code

–       second appeal against conviction and sentence of death – circumstances in

which a second appellate court will interfere with the concurrent findings of fact of the trial court and the first appellate court – EVIDENCE – confession of a co-accused – power of a court in a joint trial to take into consideration only a confession implicating a co-accused - Evidence Act section 32(2) – accomplice evidence – Evidence Act section 141 – a ruleof practice having the force of law that the trial court will warn itself of the danger of convicting on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice before basing a conviction on such evidence – circumstances in which the court may convict on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice

Criminal procedure – record of proceedings – record stating “coram as before” – record not showing clearly whether a competent prosecutor was present and prosecuted the case before the trial court – this issue was a matter of law relating to jurisdiction and it could not be ignored by the second appellate court

Succession Law-distribution of estate-where the appellant's mother had inherited the suit property from her deceased husband and had subdivided it into two equal portions registered in her name and that of the appellant's sister-where the respondent had offered the appellant a portion of her land, which he had refused to accept-where the applicant contends that his sister had no right to inherit the land under Kikuyu customary law-whether customary law is applicable in matters governed by statute whether the respondent, the deceased's widow, was holding the land in trust for the appellant the Law of Succession Act section 40