JOSEPH PARASHUKU V REPUBLIC[2013]eKLR appellant’s homestead, appellant introduced complainant to his 1st wife, complainant was given a house and they both stayed there as husband and wife. 6. That on 14th December 2011 appellant left complainant in his homestead and proceeded back to Kenya. All this time the mother of the complainant was looking for her after she got a report that the appellant had taken her. The complainant’s brother proceeded to Tanzania and with the help of Tanzanian police they went to the appellant’s home, arrested him together with the complainant and brought them back to Lolgorian police station. 7. The complainant was then taken to Transmara District Hospital for age assessment. Meanwhile the appellant was brought before court and charged with the above offence. 8. The age of the complainant was assessed to be between the age of 15-17 years. The P3 form in respect to the complainant’s age was produced as exhibit P2. 9. When asked to confirm or deny the facts as given by the prosecution, the appellant stated that some of the statements were true, that he and the complainant had agreed about the arrangement and that if the facts showed that they had not agreed the facts would not be true. He also said that he often crossed the Kenya-Tanzania border as a maasai. 10. A plea of guilty was then entered by the court and the appellant was convicted on his own plea of guilty. After hearing both the prosecution and the appellant the trial magistrate sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on the 1st count and on the 2nd count the appellant was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment. The sentences were however to run concurrently. 11. Being aggrieved by both conviction and sentence, the appellant appealed to this court. In his petition of appeal filed in court on 11th January 2012 the appellant appealed on grounds inter alia that as a Tanzanian layman he was not conversant with matters of law; that the sentence of 10 years was harsh and excessive in the circumstances, and that as a breadwinner to his young family in Tanzania his imprisonment was bound to cause a lot of suffering to them. The appellant prayed that his sentence be reduced to a lesser one. 12. This is a first appeal. The duty of this court as a first appellate court has been cut out by the Court of Appeal in such cases as Pandya –vs- R [1957] EA 336 and Okeno –vs- Republic [1972] EA 32. This court is under a duty to reconsider and evaluate the evidence afresh with the view of reaching its own conclusions in the matter. In the instant case in which the appellant was convicted on his own plea of guilty, this court is under a duty to ascertain whether the steps required to be taken by the trial court in entering a plea of guilty were all taken. In the case of Adan –vs- Republic [1973] EA 445 the Court of Appeal set out the following steps for purposes of confirming that a plea of guilty is unequivocal:“(i) the charge and all the essential ingredients of the offence should be explained to the accused in his language or in a language he understands; (ii) The accused’s own words should be recorded and if they are an admission, a plea of guilty should be recorded; (iii) the prosecution should then immediately state the facts and the accused should be given an opportunity to dispute or explain the facts or to add any relevant facts; http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 2/4