In the Resident Magistrates’ Court of Tanga at Tanga the
Appellants were charged in Economic Case No. 1 of 2015 on two counts, economic
and non-economic. After a full trial, one of the accused was found not guilty
and was acquitted. As to the two Appellants, they were found guilty, convicted
and sentenced accordingly. Aggrieved by the decision of the trial court, the
Appellants appealed to the High Court but their appeals were dismissed. Hence,
they filed a joint appeal on four grounds assailing the concurrent findings of
the two courts below.
Before embarking on hearing the appeal on its merit, the Court suo
motu invited the parties to address it on the legality of the proceedings
before the trial court on a combined economic and non- economic offences while
the certificate issued under section 12(3) the Economic and Organized Crime
Control Act [Cap 2002 R.E. 2002] was for the trial of the economic offence only
in the subordinate court. To be particular, the Court wanted to satisfy itself
whether the trial court had jurisdiction to try the case.