Wakilii

Rex v Famba (Criminal Appeal No. 18 of 1941)

East African Court of Appeal · [1941] EACA 42 · 1941 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction of murder by the High Court of Uganda
Decision
Conviction for murder upheld

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 dismissed the appeal, holding that the killing was murder. The appellant killed a woman who had deserted him after she called him a witch doctor and accused him of causing another man's death. The court found that the provocation was insufficient to cause a reasonable person of the appellant's intelligence to lose self-control. The primary source of the appellant's anger was the woman's desertion and his compulsory escort to the Gombolola Chief, not the accusation itself.

Outcome

Conviction for murder upheld

Facts

The appellant had killed a woman who had been his lover and who had deserted him for one Besweri, who died shortly before the incident. The appellant went to the Muluka Chief to ask for the return of the woman. She refused to return to him. Against the appellant's will, the Muluka Chief ordered both to be brought under escort before the Gombolola Chief. On the way, they quarrelled. The woman called the appellant a witch doctor and said he had been responsible for Besweri's death. The appellant then fell upon her and repeatedly stabbed her, causing her death. The trial judge found that the woman was not the appellant's wife and that the provocation offered fell far short of that which should cause a person of the appellant's intelligence to lose self-control.

Issues

  1. Whether the appellant was suffering from legal provocation when he killed the deceased.
  2. Whether being called a witch doctor and accused of causing another's death constitutes sufficient provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.

Rules and key headnotes

Murder — Provocation — Allegation of Witchcraft
An allegation of being a witch doctor does not constitute sufficient legal provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter where the accused was already angered by other circumstances including the victim's desertion and compulsory escort to a chief.
Murder — Provocation — Standard of Reasonableness
The test for legal provocation is whether the provocation offered would cause a person of the accused's intelligence and rank of life to lose self-control, and the decision to desert an accused person does not constitute sufficient provocation.
Manslaughter — Multiple Blows — Provocation Defence
The fact that more than one blow is struck does not of itself render the defence of provocation unavailable under section 199 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, as additional blows may be struck while the accused is still deprived of self-control as a result of the provocation received.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Criminal Procedure Ordinance s.199

Full judgment

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

Rex v Famba (Criminal Appeal No. 18 of 1941) [1941] EACA 42 (1 January 1941)
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.