Law_of_Evidence_in_Kenya
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this is because it is hard for any human being to make a vivid identification at night of a person
and the same may be required for repudiated or retracted confession.
8.5 SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE, CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY AND
CORROBORATION
The law corroboration is meant to support or confirm the evidence given in court by another
person. It has been argued that some of the development in methods of collecting evidence like
scientific and technological means like CCTV and DNA test are much accurate and therefore
requirement of corroboration to support such evidence has been seen unnecessary. The truth is
that such evidences can prove identity without requirement of the supporting evidence. This is
the reason why people feel it is not necessary to corroborate such evidence. The judiciary as
always held that such evidence still need to be corroborated because of many reasons. One is that
such evidence can also be fabricated so there is still lack of trust on the persons who carry such
evidences, two is that some of the scientific evidences are not accurate to the extent that it can
stand on its own recently identical twins in India who one was charged for rape were taken for
DNA test just for the result to be positive for both.
Professor Buchanan Bill “on the internet it is very hard to take one source of evidence as
definitive source as things could be changed and people can have different identities. We
should always get some physical and traditional corroboration.” The third issue is, for a judge
to accept the source without corroboration, he might have to verify that the technology or science
placed is accepted in the field of origin and it must be accepted generally and not by some people
only. Fry v United States (fry rule) 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923). It was said, “Just when a
scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and demonstrable
stages is difficult to define. Somewhere in this twilight zone the evidential force of the principle
must be recognized, and while courts will go a long way in admitting expert testimony deduced
from a well-recognized scientific principle or discovery, the thing from which the deduction is
made must be sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in
which it belongs.”
Republic v Edward Kirui (2008) eKLR the case involved a police officer who was caught on
camera shooting a person in Kisumu during the post-election violence. The video ev.idence