Rex v Olukamba (Cr. App. No. 120/1935.) [1936] EACA 28 (1 January 1936)

## COURT OF APPEAL FOR EASTERN AFRICA.

Before SIR JOSEPH SHERIDAN, C. J. (Kenya), ABRAHAMS, C. J. (Tanganyika), and KNIGHT-BRUCE, Ag. J. (Zanzibar).

## REX, Respondent (Original Prosecutor)

## OBAO S/O OLUKAMBA Appellant (Original Accused). Cr. App. No. 120/1935.

## Manslaughter-Negligence-Sentence.

The accused pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter. From the depositions it appeared that he and the deceased with other members of a hunting party were in a line about six yards apart: an antelope ran between the deceased and the accused, the latter threw his spear at it without waiting till it had passed through the line, and struck the deceased.

Appellant absent, unrepresented.

Vaughan (Ag. A. G., Zanibar) for the respondent.

JUDGMENT (delivered by SIR JOSEPH SHERIDAN, C. J.).-This is an appeal against sentence. The appellant, a member of a hunting party, killed one of his companions in circumstances held to amount to manslaughter by negligence. The facts of the case are set out in the depositions. He was sentenced to five years' hard labour. Bearing in mind the provisions of section 304 $(a)$ of the Indian Penal Code and adopting the remarks we have made thereon in Cr. App. No. 125/25, R. v. Eneriko Sempala $s/o$ Yowana\*; considering further that all those who were members of the hunting party may be taken to have consented to some risk and distinguishing the case from that of manslaughter by the driver of a public motor vehicle, a class of manslaughter of much greater gravity than that to which this case belongs, and giving due weight to seven cases of the kind having happened in Uganda during twelve months, the sentence is an excessive one and we reduce it to one years imprisonment with hard labour.

\*p 23 (ante).