In the District Court of Lindi, the Appellant was charged with
and convicted of the offence of incest by male contrary to section 158(1) (a)
of the Penal Code [Cap 16 R.E. 2002]. It was alleged that on divers dates
between the months of November and December 2016, he had a carnal knowledge of
“R.N.” a girl aged 14 years while having knowledge that she is his daughter.
Initially, the charge sheet contained two counts of incest
by male as the 1st count and rape contrary to section 130(2) (e) of
the Penal Code as the 2nd count. However, on 31/1/2017, before the
Appellant was arraigned, the 2nd count was dropped and the Appellant
was thus called upon to plead only to the 1st count. He denied the
charge and as a result, the case proceeded to a full trial. At the conclusion
of the trial, the trial court found the Appellant guilty. He was convicted and
sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a
compensation of TZS 500,000.00 to the child.
In convicting the Appellant, the trial court relied solely
on the testimony of PW1 whose evidence the trial Magistrate found to be
credible and reliable. The Appellant was aggrieved by the decision of the trial
court and thus appealed to the High Court. His appeal was unsuccessful.
Aggrieved further by the decision of the High Court, the Appellant preferred
this second appeal.