Wakilii

Legure v Rex (Cr.A. 58-1934.)

East African Court of Appeal · [1937] EACA 157 · 1937 Conviction Quashed — Manslaughter Substituted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction for murder in the Supreme Court of Kenya
Decision
Appellant convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment with hard labour

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The Court of Appeal held that where an accused receives provocation, the conviction for murder should be reduced to manslaughter unless there is evidence of express malice—that the accused provoked the assault with the intention of using it as an excuse to kill. Here, no such evidence existed. The conviction was altered from murder to manslaughter with a sentence of ten years' imprisonment with hard labour.

Outcome

Appellant convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment with hard labour

Facts

The appellant loved Kariundu, one of the wives of the deceased Morimi ole Bangui, and wished to arrange for the deceased to divorce her. On the day of the assault, the appellant came to the deceased's hut with Kariundu's brother and another man. Later, while the deceased, his wife, and daughter were collecting firewood, the appellant approached and inflicted a wound from which the deceased died. No one witnessed the assault directly, but the appellant's daughter saw that the appellant had a bleeding wound on his forehead. The appellant claimed the deceased struck him first with firewood, prompting him to strike back with a rungu. He initially suggested the spear wound was accidental but later admitted striking the deceased with both weapons. The deceased died approximately one month after the wound.

Issues

  1. Whether the provocation received by the accused was sufficient to reduce the charge of murder to manslaughter.
  2. Whether there was evidence that the accused provoked the deceased to assault him with the intention of taking advantage of that assault to kill or wound the deceased.

Orders

  • Conviction for murder quashed.
  • Accused convicted of manslaughter.
  • Accused sentenced to ten years' imprisonment with hard labour.

Rules and key headnotes

Provocation — Murder reduced to manslaughter — Test for provocation
Homicide is not murder but manslaughter if the act is done in the heat of passion caused by provocation, unless the provocation was sought or voluntarily provoked by the offender as an excuse for killing or doing bodily harm.
Provocation — Express malice — Intention to provoke assault
It is only where there is evidence of express malice that the accused cannot claim the excuse of provocation. Express malice exists where the accused provoked the deceased to assault him with the intention of taking advantage of that assault to kill or wound the deceased.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Penal Code of Kenya s.192

Full judgment

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

Legure v Rex (Cr.A. 58-1934.) [1937] EACA 157 (1 January 1937)
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.