After hearing the parties, the Court of Appeal underscored the
following at page 10,11,14,16,18 and 19: "...the issue becomes whether or not the Subordinate Court had
jurisdiction to decide those matters during committal proceeding.
...It is common ground that jurisdiction is Court's power to hear and
decide a case, and it is a creature of the law. It should be
underscored that the jurisdiction of any Court must be expressly
given: it cannot be implied and/or assumed. Also note-worth is the
point that invariably such jurisdiction is limited. Where a decision of
any court may be found to have been reached without jurisdiction,
such a decision risks the danger of being declared invalid by a higher
Court, (p.10)
In our jurisdiction, the Penal Code Cap 16 of the Revised Edition,
2002 is the maior statute prescribing the various offences which the
law prohibits and whose breach attracts prosecution. On the other
hand, the CPA not only governs the procedure in trials of criminal
offences, but also sets out the offences triable bv subordinate
courts, and those which are exclusively subject to trial bv the High
Court. In all those offences for which the Hioh Court has original
jurisdiction, there is a legal requirement for such offences to be
instituted in the subordinate courts (the RM's Court and District
courts), which are charged with duty to hold committal proceedings,
and subseouentlv to commit such accused persons to the Hioh Court
fortriai." (pp. 10-11)
..."Even after the repeal of Criminal Procedure Code of 1945. and
enactment of the new Criminal Procedure Act. 1985. whose main
object was to provide for procedure to be followed in investigation
of crimes and conduct of committal trial and for other related
purposes, the former position remained the same, thus the active
role of the magistrate in committal proceedings was done away
with." (p. 14)
... "In that vein, we hold the view that those matters which were
raised before the RM's court on 3.9.2014 were leoal matters to which
the RM's court had no jurisdiction to decide. Those matters ought to
have been reserved with a view of raising them in the High Court
upon being committed to that court for trial". ... (P.16)
... "Thus, we are convinced that it was improper for the High Court
Judge to interpret those powers as extending to committal
proceedings, because as already stated, matters of committal are
covered elsewhere. Consequently, we agree with Mr. Ndjike that the
Page 25 of 37
Seleccionar párrafo de destino3
Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos