By Kusekwa Kusekwa
The High Court at Moshi has acquitted a motorcycle taxi (bodaboda) operator, Denis Shirima, of a murder charge after ruling that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. He had pleaded not guilty.
Shirima was charged with killing motorcycle rider Juma Hassan Mwesi within Moshi District, Kilimanjaro Region, in 2021. The prosecution called nine witnesses and tendered six exhibits in its attempt to secure a conviction.
“I find the accused person Denis Shirima not guilty of the offence of murder. I therefore acquit the accused person forthwith and order his immediate release from custody, unless held based on other lawful reasons. It is so ordered,” Judge Fafina Simfukwe declared in a judgment delivered recently.
During the trial, the prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence. One witness linked the accused to a mobile phone she said she had bought from him, while another testified that, on the fateful day, the accused’s record of communication showed that he was in Rau area, where the murder allegedly occurred.
In the judgment, the judge concurred with defence counsel Alfred Sindato that the coverage of communication towers may be misleading. The judge also noted that the accused could have bought the deceased’s phone from another person.
The judge further held that, in the absence of any corroborating evidence — particularly from fellow bodaboda rider Amani Mosha, who allegedly saw the accused being carried by the deceased on his motorcycle — it was unsafe to base a conviction on such circumstantial evidence.
“Amani Watson Mosha was a material witness, who could have cleared all doubts on the part of the prosecution. Failure to call him, draws an adverse inference against the prosecution,” the judge said.
“I am of settled opinion that circumstantial evidence in this case is capable of more than one interpretation. Thus, the prosecution has failed to prove the offence of murder against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt as required by the law,” Judge Simfukwe declared.
According to the particulars of the offence, on December 3, 2021, at Rau Manyele’s area, within Moshi District in Kilimanjaro Region, the accused did murder one Juma Hassan Mwesi. No motive was indicated.
