The Court of Appeal has halved the 30-year jail terms imposed on three men, including a village elder, convicted of murdering two villagers after a witchdoctor publicly accused the victims of burning a neighbour's house.
The judges upheld the murder convictions but reduced each sentence from 30 years to 15 years, ruling that the trial court failed to properly weigh mitigating factors.
The court revised sentence will run from August 27, 2018, when the men were first arraigned in court.
The appellants, Fredrick Ochieng Amayo alias Zakayo Amayo (a village elder), Kelvin Odhiambo Ochieng alias Ocham Amayo and Nation Ochieng alias Ochieng Boyo, had appealed only against their sentences after their convictions by the High Court in Migori.
Prosecutors said the three joined other villagers in killing Daniel Taabu Siso and Wilfred Muyonga on January 2, 2018 at Kojea village in Suna East, Migori County.
According to the prosecution, the violence followed the burning of a neighbour's house. Mr Amayo, who was a village elder, announced that a witchdoctor would identify those responsible and convened a public meeting.
The court said the witchdoctor accused Siso and Muyonga of involvement in the arson. The gathering then descended into violence as the victims fled while being chased by the appellants and other villagers.
The judges said evidence showed Siso was cornered and attacked with a panga, a metal rod and a spear. Muyonga briefly escaped before the same group pursued him into his brother's house, where he was also fatally attacked.
Doctors found both men suffered multiple deep cut wounds penetrating the skull and brain together with other injuries consistent with attacks using sharp and blunt weapons, the judgment said.
The appellants denied the charges during trial. They argued they had been mistaken for the real attackers and maintained that the actual perpetrators remained at large.
In reducing the sentences, the Court of Appeal said the trial judge acknowledged the mitigation presented but imposed identical prison terms without explaining how those factors influenced the punishment.
"The trial court noted the mitigation advanced by the appellants but imposed a uniform sentence of 30 years imprisonment without demonstrating how the mitigating factors were weighed against the aggravating circumstances. In our view, this was a misdirection," the judges said.
The court also found that the trial judge failed to account for the period the appellants spent in custody before trial as required by law.
The judges said the killings followed "a witchdoctor's pronouncement in a community where belief in witchcraft is deeply rooted and rampant".
They described the attack as "spontaneous, arising from suspicion and mob reaction rather than premeditated planning."
"While this does not absolve the appellants of responsibility, it does mitigate the degree of malice aforethought," the court said.
The bench added that earlier decisions had treated some killings arising from witchcraft accusations as manslaughter rather than murder.
However, it declined to revisit the convictions because the appeal was strictly on sentence for the offence of murder.
