Section 9 of Penal Code CAP 63: Intention and motive
(1) Subject to the express provisions of this Code relating to negligent acts and omissions, a person is not criminally responsible for an act or omission which occurs independently of the exercise of his will, or for an event which occurs by accident.
(2) Unless the intention to cause a particular result is expressly declared to be an element of the offence constituted, in whole or part, by an act or omission, the result intended to be caused by an act or omission is immaterial.
(3) Unless otherwise expressly declared, the motive by which a person is induced to do or omit to do an act, or to form an intention, is immaterial so far as regards criminal responsibility.
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- Section 10 - Mistake of fact
(1) A person who does or omits to do an act under an honest and reasonable, but mistaken, belief in the existence of any state of things is not criminally responsible for the act or omission to any...
- Section 11 - Presumption of sanity
Every person is presumed to be of sound mind, and to have been of sound mind at any time which comes in question, until the contrary is proved.
- Section 12 - Insanity
A person is not criminally responsible for an act or omission if at the time of doing the act or making the omission he is through any disease affecting his mind incapable of understanding what he is...
- Section 13 - Intoxication
(1) Save as provided in this section, intoxication shall not constitute a defence to any criminal charge.
(2) Intoxication shall be a defence to any criminal charge if by reason thereof the person...
- Section 14 - Immature age
(1) A person under the age of eight years is not criminally responsible for any act or omission.
(2) A person under the age of twelve years is not criminally responsible for an act or omission,...
- Section 15 - Judicial officers
Except as expressly provided by this Code, a judicial officer is not criminally responsible for anything done or omitted to be done by him in the exercise of his judicial functions, although the act...
- Section 16 - Compulsion
A person is not criminally responsible for an offence if it is committed by two or more offenders, and if the act is done or omitted only because during the whole of the time in which it is being done...
- Section 17 - Defence of person or property
Subject to any express provisions in this Code or any other law in operation in Kenya, criminal responsibility for the use of force in the defence of person or property shall be determined according...
- Section 18 - Use of force in effecting arrest
Where any person is charged with a criminal offence arising out of the lawful arrest, or attempted arrest, by him of a person who forcibly resists such arrest or attempts to evade being arrested, the...
- Section 19 - Compulsion by husband
A married woman is not free from criminal responsibility for doing or omitting to do an act merely because the act or omission takes place in the presence of her husband; but, on a charge against a...
- Section 20 - Principal offenders
(1) When an offence is committed, each of the following persons is deemed to have taken part in committing the offence and to be guilty of the offence, and may be charged with actually committing it,...
- Section 21 - Joint offenders in prosecution of common purpose
When two or more persons form a common intention to prosecute an unlawful purpose in conjunction with one another, and in the prosecution of such purpose an offence is committed of such a nature that...
- Section 22 - Counselling another to commit offence
(1) When a person counsels another to commit an offence, and an offence is actually committed after such counsel by the person to whom it is given, it is immaterial whether the offence actually...
- Section 23 - Offences by corporations, societies, etc.
Where an offence is committed by any company or other body corporate, or by any society, association or body of persons, every person charged with, or concerned or acting in, the control or management...
- Section 24 - Different kinds of punishments
The following punishments may be inflicted by a court—
(a) death;
(b) imprisonment or, where the court so determines under the Community Service Orders Act, 1998, community service under a...
- Section 25 - Sentence of death
(1) Where any person is sentenced to death, the form of the sentence shall be to the effect only that he is to suffer death in the manner authorized by law.
(2) Sentence of death shall not be...
- Section 26 - Imprisonment
(1) A sentence of imprisonment for any offence shall be to imprisonment or to imprisonment with hard labour as may be required or permitted by the law under which the offence is punishable.
(2) Save...
- Section 26A - Recommendation for removal from Kenya
Where a person who is not a citizen of Kenya is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months the court by which he is convicted, or any court to which...
- Section 28 - Fines
1) Where a fine is imposed under any law, then in the absence of express provisions relating to the fine in that law the following provisions shall apply—
(a) where no sum is expressed to which the...
- Section 29 - Forfeiture
(1) When any person is convicted of an offence under any of the following sections, namely, sections 118 and 119, the court may, in addition to or in lieu of any penalty which may be imposed, order...
- Section 30 - Suspension or forfeiture of right to carry on business
(1) Where a person is convicted of any offence mentioned in Chapter XXXI and the offence arose out of, or was committed in the course of, any trade or business, whether carried on by such person or...
- Section 31 - Compensation
Any person who is convicted of an offence may be adjudged to make compensation to any person injured by his offence, and the compensation may be either in addition to or in substitution for any other...
- Section 32 - Costs
Subject to the limitations imposed by section 171 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 75), a court may order any person convicted of an offence to pay the costs of and incidental to the prosecution...
- Section 33 - Security for keeping the peace
A person convicted of an offence not punishable with death may, instead of, or in addition to, any punishment to which he is liable, be ordered to enter into his own recognizance, with or without...
- Section 34 - Recognizances
(1) If at any time the court which convicted an offender is satisfied that he has failed to observe any of the conditions of his recognizance, it may issue a warrant for his apprehension.
(2) An...
- Section 35 - Absolute and conditional discharge
(1) Where a court by or before which a person is convicted of an offence is of opinion, having regard to the circumstances including the nature of the offence and the character of the offender, that...
- Section 36 - General punishment for misdemeanours
When in this Code no punishment is specially provided for any misdemeanour, it shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or with a fine, or with both.
- Section 37 - Sentences when cumulative
Where a person after conviction for an offence is convicted of another offence, either before sentence is passed upon him under the first conviction or before the expiration of that sentence, any...
- Section 38 - Sentence on escaped convict
When sentence is passed under this Code on an escaped convict, that sentence—
(a) if of death, or fine, shall, subject to the provisions of this Code, take effect immediately;
(b) if of...
- Section 39 - Cancellation or suspension of certificate of competency
) Where any person has been convicted under this Code of an offence connected with the driving of any vehicle in respect of which a certificate of competency is required, the court before which the...
- Section 40 - Treason
) Any person who, owing allegiance to the Republic, in Kenya or elsewhere—
(a) compasses, imagines, invents, devises or intends—
(i) the death, maiming or wounding, or the imprisonment or...
- Section 42 - Concealment of treason
Any person who —
(a) becomes an accessory after the fact to treason; or
(b) knowing that any person intends to commit treason, does not give information thereof with all reasonable despatch to the...
- Section 43 - Treasonable felony
Any person who, not owing allegiance to the Republic, in Kenya or elsewhere, commits any act or combination of acts which, if it were committed by a person who owed such allegiance, would amount to...
- Section 43A - Treachery
Any person who, with intent to help the enemy, does any act which is designed or likely to give assistance to the enemy, or to interfere with the maintenance of public order or the government of...
- Section 44 - Promoting warlike undertaking
Any person who, without lawful authority, carries on, or makes preparation for carrying on, or aids in or advises the carrying on of, or preparation for, any war or warlike undertaking with, for, by...
- Section 45 - Provisions as to trial for treason, etc.
(1) A person cannot be tried for treason, or for any of the felonies defined in sections 42, 43, 43A and 44, unless the prosecution is commenced within two years after the offence is committed....
- Section 46 - Dissuasion from enlistment
Any person who wilfully dissuades or attempts to dissuade any other person from entering the disciplined forces or the police force is guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding five...
- Section 47 - Inciting to mutiny
Any person who advisedly attempts to effect any of the following purposes, that is to say—
(a) to seduce any member of the disciplined forces or any police officer from his duty or allegiance; or...
- Section 48 - Aiding, etc., to mutiny, or inciting sedition or disobedience
Any person who—
(a) aids or abets, or is accessory to, any act of mutiny by, or
(b) incites to sedition or to disobedience to any lawful order given by a superior officer, any member of the...
- Section 49 - Inducing desertion
Any person who, by any means whatever, directly or indirectly—
(a) procures or persuades or attempts to procure or persuade to desert, or
(b) aids or abets, or is accessory to, the desertion of,...
- Section 50 - Aiding prisoners of war to escape
Any person who—
(a) knowingly and advisedly aids an alien enemy, being a prisoner of war in Kenya, whether the prisoner is confined in a prison or elsewhere or is suffered to be at large on his...
- Section 51 - Definition of overt act
In the case of any of the offences defined in this Chapter, when the manifestation by an overt act of an intention to effect any purpose is an element of the offence, every act of conspiring with any...
- Section 52 - Power to prohibit publications
(1) Where the Minister, on reasonable grounds, considers that it is necessary in the interests of public order, health or morals, the security of Kenya, and to be reasonably justifiable in a...
- Section 53 - Penalty for prohibited publications
(1) Any person who, otherwise than in his capacity and in the course of his duties as a public officer, prints, makes, imports, publishes, sells, supplies, offers for sale or supply, distributes,...
- Section 54 - Seizure and disposal of prohibited publications
(1) Any police officer or administrative officer may seize and detain any prohibited publication which he finds in circumstances which raise a reasonable presumption that an offence under this Act has...
- Section 59 - Unlawful oaths to commit capital offences
Any person who—
(a) is present at, and consents to the administering of, any oath, or engagement in the nature of an oath, purporting to bind the person who takes it to commit any offence...
- Section 60 - Administration of unlawful oaths to commit capital offences
Any person who administers an oath, or engagement in the nature of an oath, purporting to bind the person who takes it to commit any offence, punishable with death, is guilty of a felony and shall be...
- Section 61 - Unlawful oaths to commit other offences
Any person who—
(a) administers, or is present at and consents to the administering of, any oath or engagement in the nature of an oath, purporting to bind the person who takes it to act in any of...
- Section 62 - Compelling another person to take an oath
(1) Any person who by the use of physical force, or by threat or intimidation of any kind, compels another person to take an oath or engagement in the nature of an oath purporting to bind the person...
- Section 63 - Compulsion, how far a defence
It shall not be a defence for a person who takes any oath or engagement in the nature of an oath mentioned in section 59 or section 61 to prove that he was compelled to do so unless, within five days...