Criminal Appeal No

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF TANZANIA AT DODOMA (CORAM: NYALALI, C. J. , MUSTAFA, J.A. and KISANGA, J.A.) CRIMINAL SAL-'.".l'. 11 OF 1984 B E T W E E N MSHAMU SWEDI............................................APPELLANT and THE REPUBLIC. ........................................... RESPONDENT (Appeal from the conviction of the High Court of Tanzania at Singida) (Hon. W.J. Maina, J.) dated the 20th day of February, 1984 in Criminal Sessions Case No.90 of 1980 Reasons for Judgement KISANGA, J.A. The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court sitting at Singida. He appealed to this Court, but at the hearing of the appeal we dismissed it and we now give our reasons for doing so. There was abundant evidence to support the conviction. The appellant and deceased were husband and wife. On the Material day in the evening they returned home from drinking pombe. On reaching home the appellant narrated to his other two wives an incident at the pombe shop where he had discovered the deceased in a secret conversation with a man when the deceased went to the latrine, and how that man ran away when the appellant wanted to find out what the conversation was about. The deceased replied that this behaviour of the appellant suspecting her ever time was now toj much for het to hear, and suggested that their marriagd had better be terminated by having the bridewealth returned to the appellant. The appellant seemingly expressed his approval of this proposal and se.*nt one of his other two wives to call a neighbour to come and hear what *tl^e deceased had suggested. Meantine the appellant suddenly attacked the deceased, cutting her with an axe several times and causing her to fall down and bleed profusely. The appellant ran awa; The deceased wag carried to a dispensary but died only shortly afterward; The appellant’s defences of drunkenness and provocation were duly considered rand rightly rejected by the trial court. For, according to Veneranda (P.W.2), one of the appellant's other two wives, the appellant was not drunk, and although the witness was within a hearing distance during thg» attach she did not see or hear the assaults as alleged by the appellant that the deceased had pushed him and caused him to fall on a pail whicf/h injured his lips and that the deceased further bit him on the 2 head using her teeth. The learned judge believed this witness and we could not say that he erred in so doing. Furthermore, the injuries allegedly inflicted by the deceased were not noticed on the appellant by the witnesses, including Ramadhani (P.W.5) his own relative, to whom he reported that he had injured the deceased seriously. We were therefore satisfied that the appeal was entirely devoid of merit, and on that account we dismissed it accordingly. DATED at Dodoma this 21st day of March, 1985. (F.-L. NYALALI) CHI6F JUSTICE (A. MUSTAFA ) JUSTICE OF APPEAL (R. H. KISANGA) JUSTICE OF APPEAL I certify that this is a true copy of the original (B. P. MOSHI) SENIOR DEPUTY REGISTRAR