Majige v. R. (PC) Crim. App. 395-M-1970; 9/2/72; Makame, J.

 

Majige v. R. (PC) Crim. App. 395-M-1970; 9/2/72; Makame, J.

The appellant, a Ward Executive Officer, found the complainant at a funeral and asked him to accompany him to the primary court. There he locked him up for two days without any food. The former was charged and convicted of unlawful confinement. On appeal he argued that his actions were for the Ward Development Committee. There were allegations that the complainant had failed to pay a fine under traditional custom thought it was not clear for what offence, the court intimating that it was either for abusing a cell-leader or for persuading young lady not to give her hand in marriage to a particular person.

            Held: (1) “Be it as it may, as a Justice of the Peace the appellant had no power to arrest without a warrant in the first place, for which ever of the two the complainant was alleged to have done was not cognizable offence. As the Executive Officer for the Ward Development Committee he should have known that a Ward Development Committee has no power to lock up a person. The most that it can do is to report to the Area Commissioner a person’s failure to pay a fine for lack of co-operation. It was established that the appellant confined the complainant and, as the East African Court of Appeal said in the case of Mwaitabele v. The Republic (1970) H.C.D. 294 the onus is on the accused to establish, if only on a balance of probabilities, that the confinement was lawful. The appellant in the present case unlawfully curtained the complainant’s liberty and he was quite properly convicted and sentenced.” (2) Appeal dismissed.