Wakilii

Kabwiso Issa v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No.7 of 2002)

Supreme Court · [2003] UGSC 63 · 2003 Appeal Partly Allowed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Second criminal appeal from the Court of Appeal, which had confirmed the appellant's High Court conviction and sentence for defilement
Decision
Conviction for defilement upheld; sentence reduced from 15 years to 10 years' imprisonment running from 29 September 2000.

Observed later treatment

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Holding

The Court dismissed the appeal against conviction for defilement, holding that section 25 of the Evidence Act did not bar the appellant's voluntary verbal confession to the victim's father, which the Court of Appeal was entitled to treat as corroborating the complainant's evidence; the case relied on by the appellant was distinguished because that confession had been extracted by force. On sentence, the Court allowed the appeal, finding the trial judge's words ambiguous and non-compliant with article 23(8) of the Constitution regarding time spent on remand. It set aside the 15-year sentence and substituted ten years, running from the date of the original sentence, and issued guidelines on how courts should account for remand time.

Outcome

Conviction for defilement upheld; sentence reduced from 15 years to 10 years' imprisonment running from 29 September 2000.

Facts

The appellant was employed as a herdsman living in the home of the victim's father. On 9 December 1995 the father asked the victim, a girl under 18, to accompany the appellant to tend cattle at a swamp about six miles away. While there, the appellant teased the victim, threw her to the ground and defiled her. She cried out, bled, and blood stains remained at the scene. She ran home and reported to her father, who, with a neighbour, went to the scene and found the appellant nearby; when confronted, he denied the offence and then fled, abandoning the cattle. That evening the appellant returned to the father's home and apologised for having defiled the victim. Medical examination confirmed the defilement. In his unsworn defence the appellant claimed the case had been fabricated against him because his employer owed him unpaid wages of 80,000/=. The trial court rejected that defence and convicted him.

Issues

  1. Whether a verbal confession made by the appellant to the victim's father was admissible and could corroborate the conviction, having regard to section 25 of the Evidence Act.
  2. Whether the trial judge complied with article 23(8) of the Constitution in taking the appellant's period on remand into account when imposing sentence.

Orders

  • Appeal against conviction dismissed.
  • Appeal against sentence allowed.
  • Sentence of 15 years' imprisonment set aside.
  • Sentence of ten (10) years' imprisonment substituted, to run from 29 September 2000.
  • Judgment to be circulated to all courts, prosecutors and prison authorities for guidance.

Rules and key headnotes

Criminal Evidence — Confessions — Section 25 Evidence Act — Voluntary confession to a private person
Section 25 of the Evidence Act renders a confession irrelevant only where it appears to have been caused by violence, force, threats, inducement or promise calculated to produce an untrue confession; a voluntary verbal confession made by an accused to a private person such as the complainant's father is not thereby excluded and may be treated as evidence corroborating the complainant's testimony.
Criminal Evidence — Conduct of accused — Flight from scene as conduct inconsistent with innocence
An accused's conduct in fleeing the scene when confronted with the complaint may be treated by the court as conduct inconsistent with innocence and may support the conviction.
Sentencing — Article 23(8) of the Constitution — Accounting for time spent on remand
Article 23(8) of the Constitution requires that the period an accused spends in lawful custody before completion of trial be taken into account specifically, alongside other relevant factors, before the court pronounces the term to be served; a sentence expressed in ambiguous terms that does not clearly do so is unlawful and may be set aside.
Sentencing — Guidelines — Form of words for taking remand period into account
When sentencing, a court should state that, taking into account the period already spent on remand, it now sentences the accused to a definite term; the term so imposed is definite and is treated as excluding the period spent in custody on remand.

Legislation cited (3)

Cases cited (1)

  • Kataiha Deo v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No. 129 of 2001)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Kabwiso Issa v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No.7 of 2002) [2003] UGSC 63 (27 October 2003)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.