Swalehe s/o Mohamedi, Crim. App. 149-D-68, 10/1/69, Biron J.
The appellant was convicted in the Primary Court of Mtama on two pairs of related counts of housebreaking and stealing, c/s 294(1) and 265, Penal Code. He was sentenced to imprisonment for two years on each of the housebreaking convictions and to imprisonment for two months and three months respectively, on the convictions for theft, all the sentences of imprisonment to run concurrently, and to the statutory twenty four strokes corporal punishment, under the Minimum Sentences Act.
Held: ……… “There are, to my mind, special circumstances apparent from
the facts of the offences themselves. The offences were committed together with another man much older than the appellant, whose age was found by the primary court magistrate to be nineteen years. This other man who, incidentally, did not appeal, was alleged to have had a string of previous convictions, of which he denied all but two, of house-breaking and stealing, when he was sentenced to a substantive term of imprisonment for three years and to twenty four strokes corporal punishment. It is thus apparent that in committing these instant offences the appellant was influenced by this older man with a criminal record, whose age, incidentally, was found by the magistrate to be about thirty five years. The combination of all the relevant circumstances, to my mind, constitutes special circumstances within the meaning to my mind, constitutes special circumstances within the meaning of the Minimum Sentences Act qualifying the appellant for the exercise of the court’s discretion. Bearing in mind his youth, I consider that the justice of the
case would be met by the imposition of a substantive sentence of imprisonment for one year”.
