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

[Ruling] – REVIEW – certiorari - application for – where the applicant applied for orders of certiorari to quash the decision of a Land Disputes Tribunal – whether the tribunal had jurisdiction to issues the orders – validity of orders

[Ruling] – SUCCESSION – probate and administration – application for revocation of grant of letters of administration – where the grant was obtained through fraudulent representations – factors court will consider in such making orders – validity of orders - Probate and Administration Rule 73 of Part XII

Customary Law-inheritance-where the customs of the Basniaga clan of the Maragoli hold that land shall be distributed in accordance with the number of wives regardless of the number of children in each house-whether such custom is repugnant to justice-Judicature Act (cap.8), Section 3