[2020] KEHC 2920 (KLR)
The court held that the trial magistrate erred by not factoring in the period the applicant spent in remand custody prior to sentencing. Section 333(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Sentencing Policy Guidelines 2016 mandate that the time spent in custody must be considered and deducted from the total...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2020] KEHC 2920 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: Riziki Charo Mranja; Respondent: Director of Public Prosecutions
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Malindi
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Miscellaneous Criminal Application 73 of 2019
- Procedural Posture
- Miscellaneous Application / Ruling on Sentence Revision
- Outcome
- sentence reviewed to account for remand period
- Judges
- DB Nyakundi
- Legal Topics
- Sentence Revision, Remand Period Credit, Manslaughter, Sentencing Guidelines
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
More case intelligence is available
Unlock the full research layer for this judgment.
Parties
Riziki Charo Mranja
Applicant
Director of Public Prosecutions
Respondent
Procedural Posture
Miscellaneous Application / Ruling on Sentence Revision
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the trial court erred by not considering the period spent in remand when sentencing the applicant for manslaughter.
- 2 Whether the applicant is entitled to have the remand period deducted from his custodial sentence under Section 333(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Ratio Decidendi
The court held that the trial magistrate erred by not factoring in the period the applicant spent in remand custody prior to sentencing. Section 333(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Sentencing Policy Guidelines 2016 mandate that the time spent in custody must be considered and deducted from the total sentence. The applicant had been in remand for two years and three months before being sentenced to fifteen years for manslaughter. The court found that the applicant was entitled to have this period credited towards his sentence. Consequently, the sentence was reviewed to reflect that the period already served in remand would be included, and the remaining sentence would run from...
Court Disposition
sentence reviewed to account for remand period
Orders
- The sentence is hereby reviewed to include the period the applicant already served in remand to remain with from 31.5.2013.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
26 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MALINDI
MISC. CRIMINAL APPL. NO. 73 OF 2019
RIZIKI CHARO MRANJA..............................................APPLICANT
VERSUS
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS............. RESPONDENT
(Revision application in respect of the decision of Hon. Obura (PM) in Kilifi Senior Principal Magistrate’s Court Criminal Case No. 205 of 2011 dated 31st May 2013 imposing a 15 year sentence on the accused for the offence of manslaughter)
CORAM: Hon. Justice R. Nyakundi
Riziki Charo Mranja in person
Mr. Alenga for the DPP
RULING
The applicant, Riziki Charo Mranja, was arrested, charged and convicted with the offence of manslaughter under Section 202 as read with Section 25 of the Penal Code by a decision of Hon. Obura (PM) in Kilifi Senior Principal Magistrate’s Court Criminal Case No. 205 of 2011 made on 31st May 2013. He was sentenced to fifteen (15) years imprisonment. He did not exercise his right to appeal.
He has now approached this Court seeking for a revision of his sentence on account of the Learned trial Magistrate not considering the duration of time he had spent incarcerated in remand. He avers that the time spent in remand before his eventual sentencing was 2 years and 3 months. That as of 25th November 2019 he had been behind bars for a period of 6 years 2 months since his sentencing. That the sentencing policy guidelines 2016 require that this time be taken into account.
His prayer is that the time spent in remand be considered as part of his sentence.
Determination
Section 333 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides:
“333 (1) A warrant under the hand of the Judge or Magistrate by whom a person is sentenced to imprisonment, ordering that the sentence shall be carried out in any prison within Kenya, shall be issued by the sentencing Judge or Magistrate, and shall be full authority to the officer in charge of the prison and to all other persons for carrying into effect the sentence described in the warrant, not being a sentence of death.
(2) Subject to the provisions of Section 38 of the Penal Code every sentence shall be deemed to commence from, and to include the whole of the day of, the date on which it was pronounced, except where otherwise provided in this Code.
Provided that where the person sentenced under subsection (1) has, prior to such sentence, been held in custody, the sentence shall take account of the period spent in custody.”
The applicant was sentenced to fifteen (15) years. He was in remand for the two (2) years three (3) months of the duration of his trial. From the date of his sentencing on 31st May 2013 to now is he has been incarcerated for about seven (7) years and four (4) months. Considering the time the applicant spent in remand, he has been in custody for nine (9) years and seven (7) months.
In the upshot I make the following order:
(a). The sentence is hereby reviewed to include the period the applicant already served in remand to remain with from 31. 5.2013.
DATED, SIGNED AND DELIVERED AT MALINDI THIS 1ST DAY OF OCTOBER, 2020
...........................
R. NYAKUNDI
JUDGE