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Fundamentals of Criminal Law
Fundamentals of Criminal Law
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Nyangoma , muhindos wife who also had been in exile is led to drive past curfew time where
she is stopped by ldu men who questioned her once she said she was muhindos wife , she was
mistreated where she was verbally abused , sexually assaulted during a search , slapped by a on
kyjanja . during the search however her breast was squeezed which forced her into action by kicking
the persons genitals. this resulted in her beating which led her to be rushed to the lubaga hospital .
upon recovery , she recovered her items of which was a mobile phone. however the mobile phone was
actually belonging to a policeman who was a former a patient and hers had actually been stolen during
the scuffle . kajanja is aware of this but wants to persecute her on her husbands behalf.
Kajanja , with prior law knowledge ,advises and orders the police at nateete police station
nyangoma to be arrested on the pretext of theft of a police mans phone , making the police man
impotent along with terrorism and treason charges .
Whether mr muhindo should be liable for the charges imposed on him yet he was exile during
the enactment of the laws .
Whether mr muhindo s claim to ignorance holds substance according to the law shown.
Whether the arrest performed by the police during mr muhindos arrest was legal in nature
.
Whether it was legal for nyangoma to be arrested on charges that are not within the
constitution of Uganda.
Mr muhindo claims unawareness of the laws that he is being charged with. He states that he is
ignorant of the law since one of them was introduced just a week after his return . this is also shown by
the fact that he was absent during the formation of the other laws since he was in exile. however
section 6 of the penal code states that ignorance of the law does not afford any excuse for any act or
omission which would otherwise constitute an offence unless knowledge of the law by the offender is
expressly declared to be an element of the offence. Thus mr . muhindo is criminally liable for the
offences of breaking section five of the public order management act 2020 and
Accordingly police is liable for any negative consequence they perform during their activities
they perform during arrest. This is due to the fact that one of the functions of the police according to
the police act is serve and defend the people of Uganda. It also indicates in sub section vi of the police
act that the police shall been charged if found to have been to have been indsicpline whereby gross
misconduct is found to have been a crime.
Hence the police can be held criminally liable for injuring the man who lost his leg in the
scuffle ,
The police can also be charged under section 16 for going ahead to use excessive force on
nyangoma whereby they went ahead to beat her to the level of unconsciousness . they can also be
charged with assault according to section 236 of the penal code and also section 126 and also section
128 of the Ugandan constitution.
There is no legality being arrested for destroying a polices manhood since this law is non
existant in the Ugandan constitution and also the penal code.however nyangoma can still be held for
assault with intent to cause bodily harm.
Defenses
It is well known that not everyone knows all the laws in the country of that country to govern
him. Therefore that this may afford him aground for the court to be lenient to him because of the
reduced moral blame worthiness”1
Nyangoma can also claim her right to self defense which led her to kick the policeman . self
defense is the use of force to protect herself , ones family , ones property from a real or threatened
attack. 2She can claim that the sexual assault performed on her forced her to react by going ahead to
fight back against the police man . since squeezing the breast of a woman is a very serious crime also.
so henceforth she can claim that that was the counter reaction cause by it.
She can also claim section 9 of the penal code (mistake by the fact) .this is whereby once a
person commits a crime unknowingly and unintentionally , the are held to be not criminally liable for a
crime that has been commited . she claim this since she was unconsciousness and when she woke up
she just picked the phone without clearly knowing that the phone actually belonged to her as claimed .
5. vicarious liability is a legal doctrine that assigns liability for an injury or death to a person
who did not cause the injury but who has a particular legal relationship to the person who did the act
negligently or with intent. 3To fully understand this rule we can reference the two latin maxims
respondeat superior(let the master answer ) and qui facit per alluim facit per se(he who acts through
another acts himself). That means that due to certain special relationships you can become party to a
crime .for example , in the case of allen vs whitehead (1929) the café manager was held vicaarioulsy
liable for the actions of allowing prostitutes to meet in his café whereby prostitution was illegal.
However, the manager was actually ignorant of the fact that the prostitutes were meeting in his café.
however the employee had prior knowledge that this prostitutes were meeting and allowed them to do
so within the café. The manager was therefore held liable for the actions of his employee who allowed
this prostitutes to enter the café.
1
C.j book ; guidance to criminal procedure in uganda 2nd edition page 51
2
Blacks law dictionary 9th edition at page 1481
3
Free dictionary.com (vicarious liability)
The doctrine of identification can also been seen in application .this is whereby people of
senior status can be identified as the ones that were liable on behalf of the company or the institution
that is being sued for example the managing director of a company or the head of a school.
An act of negligence must have been committed to the victim. this is also known as imputed
negligence.
The victim should have been necessarily being affected by the act of negligence .
However you cant also hold a company liable for the independent actions of an employees
independent actions . this is because the actions must have done the act criminally in
enforcing the actions on behalf of the employer or the company that they are working for .
case in study is that of bazley vs curry (1999) .the defendant had allegedly sexually
assaulted the victim in the case and she was holding the non government organisation called ,
the childrens foundation for which she was grossly assaulted.
it can also be used on parents who can be held liable for their children’ s particular doings.
For a parent to be held responsible for a childs action they child should be of an age whereby he can’t
be held liable for the actions of his parent since he is unkowningly of the consequences of his/ her
actions. For instance if a child kills or injures someone when their driving , the parents will be held
responsible for a the child who has killed someone since they cant drive out of their own accord and
the parents negligently allowed the child to drive.
A principal of an educational institution can also be made liable for example if his teacher
commits an negligible act. a partner may also be held liable for another s actions. For example if a
principal hires a teacher who is a repeated sexual offender and the teacher goes ahead to sexually
assault one of the students . the principal shall be held criminally liable since he hired a teacher who
did no establish his past of sexual offences hence presence of vicarious liability.
B)nouvs actus interveniens is an independent event which after the wrongdoers act has been
concluded either caused or contributed to the consequence concerned .5this details that their should be
a chain of facts that attributed to the alleged crime taking place on the said victim. This means that in
order for a crime to take place, their needs to be proof that their was caustion by the perpatrators
leading up to the consequence.
You can also interpret the principle has a combination and chain of happenings that may
have led up to the consequence or to the eventual crime. For instance , a when john drives and knocks
kyle on the road by mistake. Knowing that kyle may need urgent assistance but decides to drive off,
once kyle gets to the hospital and his leg is amputated due to delayed treatment ,john therefore can be
held criminally liable by kyle.
However the principle also shows that once there is no interfering action that has occurred ,
then they might be inapplicability if it due to the fact that the act might have instead caused this
dangerous harm or led to the death for example if a storm goes on to further damage property that
was also damaged by a wrong doer , then your unable to tell if it may have been caused by the storm or
by the said wrong doer.
4
Iclr.org(definition of doli incapax)
5
Hogannovellls.com(defininition of novud actus interveniens)
6
Section 10 of the penal code act.
7
Oxford.dictionaru .com(definition of compulsion/ duress)
e)transferred malice(intent) is a legal doctrine that holds that ,when the intention to harm
one individual inadvertently causes a second person to be hurt instead , the perpetrator is still held
responsible. 8so when a certain person possesses the mens rea for a particular crime they can still be
held accountable even if the intended person on who the crime he or she wanted to perform the act,
this is because once the crime is committed the malice moves from the supposed target to the person
who is affected by the crime committed. there are a number of areas where transferred malice can be
implied for example battery , assault , false imprisonment among other criminal activities.
For instance if George has the ill intent to go ahead and attack john , in the result if he
attacks john mary is injured during the supposed attack on john . George will still be held liable for the
offense carried out mary since regardless of him getting the wrong victim, the fact that he went on
with ill intent to perform a crime , he shall therefore be held liable for the crime of dangerous harm to
mary since she is a victim and the guilty person had to be accountable for his actions .
8
Hein online (transferred malice definition )