Africa-Press – Kenya. Samuel Maloba Obuyi fought with his neighbour whom he had given an axe to use but returned it damaged and blunt.
The fight ended the life of the neighbour, Patrick Tuti, and earned Obuyi a death sentence.
But now Obuyi can rest easy, after the Court of Appeal overturned his death sentence, and instead handed him 15 years in prison starting March 2016, when he was convicted. This means he has served seven years and has eight more to go.
The judgment of appeal was delivered on June 9.
The fight took place in 2006 and court reports show that Obuyi was in a tag team with his father, descending on their neighbour with no mercy, striking his abdomen using the axe and his back using a stick.
The fight was in the evening and Tuti succumbed to the injuries later in the night.
The incident happened in Ebukame village, Ebusakami sublocation, South Bunyore location in Vihiga.
Postmortem results showed Tuti died from cardiopulmonary arrest due to a spleen rapture.
There was also extensive internal bleeding within his abdomen which was as a direct result of trauma.
In court, he was charged with murder and convicted.
But on appeal, he complained that the account by witnesses were inconsistent and not strong enough to convict him.
He also complained that at trial, the judge never heard him, as he only glossed over his defense with a dismissive attitude.
The prosecutor responding, however, conceded the appeal. He said the evidence was not strong enough for murder charge, saying the man should have been charged with manslaughter.
“[The prosecutor] submitted that [witnesses’] unrebutted evidence was that there was a quarrel and a fight over an axe, and the appellant hit the deceased with that axe in the stomach. Counsel, however, conceded that the evidence on record was not sufficient to sustain a murder charge,” the papers read.
The prosecution suggested that with the substituted charge, the man should serve 15 years.
The judges found that Obuyi did not intend to kill his neighbour and hence had no malice aforethought. The death just resulted from the fight.
“The death of the deceased having arisen from a fight between the appellant and the deceased, we agree that the appellant may not have intended to kill the deceased, hence the requisite mens rea for the offence of murder was lacking.”
They went on, “Being of that mind, we quash the conviction of murder and substitute it with manslaughter. We set aside the sentence to death and in its place order that the appellant shall serve a sentence of 15 years in prison, commencing from March 31, 2016 when he was sentenced by the High Court.”
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