Kombo s/o Haji Ngenge v. R., Crim. App. 337-D-67; 22/6/67; Georges, C.J.
Thirteen members of the Dar es Salaam Charcoal Union marched to the Forestry Office with the intention, as they later put it, to commandeer it in the name of “Commercial Revolution.” Entering the premises over the clerk’s objections, they placed a board outside the office and hoisted a flag in the window, engaging the while in “a loud conversation in an unintelligible tongue.” Apparently, no one asked them to leave. They insulted no one, and made no threats. “They were, in affect, demonstrating” There were subsequently convicted of unlawful assembly and criminal trespass. (P.C. ss. 74, 299(b). ) On the convictions for unlawful assembly, those with previous convictions (whose character was not specified by the High Court) were sentenced to 9 months’ imprisonment, while the first offenders received sentences of 6 months.
Held: (1) The criminal trespass convictions cannot stand, since the statute clearly applies to private property and not to public offence. (2) The convictions for unlawful assembly were sound. Accused s’ conduct was not “likely to provoke a breach of the peace by others,” but it was “such that a person in the neighbor-hood could reasonably fear that they would commit a breach of the peace.”(3) This was not “the sort of case where any distinction in punishment should have been made between one accused and another on the basis of previous convictions. There would have been justification for imposing a more severe sentence on the ringleader if his role could be established,” but there was no specific evidence on that point.
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