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Court of AppealPartially AllowedCriminal Appeal (not stated in judgment)· [2025] KECA 1231 (KLR)

Jacob Bundi v Republic

Court of Appeal of Kenya
4 July 2025
JLJ. LesiitALAli-AroniGOG.V. Odunga
4,529 words in judgment
View original judgmentRead on Kenya Law Watch case
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The bottom line

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Kenya's Court of Appeal upheld a murder conviction but replaced the death sentence with 30 years' imprisonment, reflecting Kenya's shift away from mandatory death sentences.

What this practically means

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Executive summary

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The appellant was convicted by the High Court (Ong'injo, J.) of the murder of his stepbrother, Stephen Kirimi, committed on 30th June 2012 at Eastleigh Trading Centre, Igembe North, and was sentenced to death. On first appeal, the Court of Appeal (J. Lesiit, Ali-Aroni and G.V. Odunga, JJ.A) rehearsed its duty as a first appellate court to re-evaluate the evidence afresh, guided by Okeno v R. The court distilled two issues: whether the prosecution proved the ingredients of murder beyond reasonable doubt, and whether the sentence was lawful. The prosecution's case rested on an eyewitness (PW2), DNA evidence linking the deceased's blood to bloodstains on the appellant's clothes recovered from his house, and the postmortem showing decapitation. The appellant admitted cutting the deceased but claimed it happened accidentally during a struggle over a panga the deceased allegedly drew. The court rejected that defence, noting the issue of 'Moris' emerged only in the defence and was unsupported, that the appellant left to fetch the panga, and that the repeated cuts and his flight for a year and a half established malice aforethought, applying Daniel Muthee v Republic. It aligned itself with the trial court's findings and affirmed the conviction. On sentence, however, invoking the emerging jurisprudence on the death sentence for murder following Muruatetu, and considering that the parties had been drinking together and bore no serious grudge, the court found a determinate sentence appropriate: it set aside the death sentence and substituted thirty years' imprisonment running from the date of the appellant's arrest. The appeal therefore succeeded only in part.

Key legal issues

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01

Proof of malice aforethought

Holding

Malice aforethought was established by the appellant's calculated conduct: leaving to fetch a panga, repeatedly cutting the deceased, and fleeing the scene for one and a half years.

Reasoning

The court adopted the reasoning in Daniel Muthee v Republic: repeated cuts with a panga show the assailant must have known the act would cause death or grievous harm under section 206(b) of the Penal Code. The trial court's findings that the cuts were intentional and not accidental were affirmed, and the appellant's defence of accidental injury during a struggle was rejected because the 'issue of Moris only came up in his defence' and was unsupported even by his own witnesses.

p. 7
02

Appropriate sentence for murder

Holding

Although the conviction was sound, the death sentence was set aside in light of emerging jurisprudence on murder sentences and the particular circumstances, and a determinate sentence of thirty years was substituted.

Reasoning

The court considered the emerging jurisprudence on murder offences vis-à-vis the death sentence, that the parties had spent the evening drinking together with no known serious grudge, and that the appellant, though with an excuse, admitted cutting the deceased. These circumstances commended a determinate rather than the maximum sentence, running from the date of arrest.

p. 8

Legal principles established

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  • A first appellate court must reconsider the evidence afresh, analyse and evaluate it, and arrive at its own independent conclusions while making allowance for the trial court's advantage of seeing and hearing the witnesses.

Court orders

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  1. 1.Conviction affirmed
  2. 2.Death sentence set aside and substituted with a sentence of thirty (30) years imprisonment to run from the date of the appellant's arrest
On appeal from
High Court of Kenya
Jurisdiction invoked
First appeal to the Court of Appeal under the Criminal Procedure Code (specific section not stated in the judgment)

Key timeline

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Practical implications

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Frequently asked questions

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Cite this brief

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Cite this brief

Caselaw, "Jacob Bundi v Republic", Case Analysis (2025). Criminal Appeal (not stated in judgment). Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keca/2025/1231/eng@2025-07-04

Suggested citation format for research notes or client memos. Always verify the original judgment before relying on any point.