Chapter 32

OFFENCES CAUSING INJURY TO PROPERTY.

327. Arson.

Any person who wilfully and unlawfully sets fire to— (a) any building or structure, whether completed or not;

(b) any vessel, whether completed or not;

(d) a mine, or the workings, fittings or appliances of a mine, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.

328. Attempt to commit arson.

Any person who— (a) attempts unlawfully to set fire to any such thing as is mentioned in section 327; or

(b) wilfully and unlawfully sets fire to anything which is so situated that any such thing as is mentioned in section 327 is likely to catch fire from it, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

329. Setting fire, etc. to crops and growing plants.

Any person who wilfully and unlawfully sets fire to or otherwise destroys or damages— (a) a crop of cultivated produce, whether standing, picked or cut;

(b) a crop of hay or grass under cultivation, whether the natural or indigenous product of the soil or not, and whether standing or cut; or

(c) any standing trees, saplings or shrubs, whether indigenous or not, under cultivation, commits a felony and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of seven years.

330. Attempt to set fire to crops, etc.

Any person who— (a) attempts unlawfully to set fire to any such thing as is mentioned in section 329; or

(b) wilfully and unlawfully sets fire to anything which is so situated that any such thing as is mentioned in section 329 is likely to catch fire from it, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

331. Prevention and control of fires.

Any person who— (a) without the consent of the owner or occupier of any land, wilfully or negligently burns any crops, stubble, grass, trees, bush or herbage on the land;

(b) leaves any fire which he or she may have lighted or used or authorised to be lighted or used in the open air before the fire is thoroughly extinguished; or

(c) fails to prevent any fire lawfully lit by him or her on land occupied or owned by him or her, or lighted with his or her authority or consent, from extending on to the land of any other person or from causing damage to the property of any other person, commits a misdemeanour.

332. Casting away ships.

Any person who— (a) wilfully and unlawfully casts away or destroys any vessel, whether completed or not;

(b) wilfully and unlawfully does any act which tends to the immediate loss or destruction of a vessel in distress; or

(c) with intent to bring a vessel into danger, interferes with any light, beacon, buoy, mark or signal used for purposes of navigation, or exhibits any false light or signal, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.

333. Attempt to cast away ships.

Any person who attempts unlawfully to cast away or destroy a vessel, whether completed or not, or attempts unlawfully to do any act tending to the immediate loss or destruction of a vessel in distress, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

334. Injuring animals.

(1) Any person who wilfully and unlawfully kills, maims or wounds any animal capable of being stolen commits an offence.

(2) If the animal in question is a horse, mare, gelding, ass, mule, camel, bull, cow, ox, goat, pig, ram, ewe, wether or ostrich, or the young of any such animal, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years; and in any other case the offender commits a misdemeanour.

335. Punishment for malicious injuries in general.

(1) Any person who wilfully and unlawfully destroys or damages any property commits an offence and is liable, if no other punishment is provided, to imprisonment for five years.

(2) If the property in question is a dwelling house or a vessel, and the injury is caused by the explosion of any explosive substance, and if— (a) any person is in the dwelling house or vessel; or

(b) the destruction or damage actually endangers the life of any person, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.

(3) If the property in question—

(a) is a bank or wall of a river, canal, aqueduct, reservoir or inland water, or work which appertains to a dock, reservoir or inland water, and the injury causes actual danger of inundation or damage to any land or building;

(b) is a railway or is a bridge, viaduct or aqueduct which is constructed over a highway, railway or canal, or over which a railway, highway or canal passes, and the property is destroyed; or

(c) being a railway, or being any such bridge, viaduct or aqueduct, is damaged, and the damage is done with intent to render the railway, bridge, viaduct or aqueduct, or the highway, railway or canal passing over or under the same, or any part thereof, dangerous or impassable, and the same or any part thereof is thereby rendered dangerous or impassable, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.

(4) If the property in question is a testamentary instrument, whether the testator is living or dead, or a register which is authorised or required by law to be kept for authenticating or recording the title to any property or for recording births, baptisms, marriages, deaths or burials, or a copy of any part of any such register which is required by law to be sent to any public officer, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

(5) If the property in question is a vessel in distress, wrecked or stranded, or anything which belongs to such vessel, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

(6) If the property in question is any part of a railway or any work connected with a railway, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

(7) If the property in question—

(a) being a vessel, whether completed or not, is destroyed;

(b) being a vessel, whether completed or not, is damaged, and the damage is done with intent to destroy it or render it useless;

(c) is a light, beacon, buoy, mark or signal, used for the purposes of navigation, or for the guidance of persons engaged in navigation;

(d) is a bank or wall of a river, canal, aqueduct, reservoir or inland water, or a work which appertains to a dock, canal, aqueduct, reservoir or inland water, or which is used for the purposes of lading or unlading goods;

(e) being a railway or being a bridge, viaduct or aqueduct which is constructed over a highway, railway or canal, or over which a highway, railway or canal passes, is damaged and the damage is done with intent to render the railway, bridge, viaduct or aqueduct, or the highway, railway or canal passing over or under the same, or any part thereof, dangerous or impassable;

(f) being anything in process of manufacture, or an agricultural or manufacturing machine, or a manufacturing implement, or a machine or appliance used or intended to be used for performing any process connected with the preparation of any agricultural or pastoral produce, is destroyed;

(g) being any such thing, machine, implement or appliance, as referred to in paragraph (f) of this subsection, is damaged and the damage is done with intent to destroy the thing in question or to render it useless;

(h) is a shaft or a passage of a mine, and the injury is done with intent to damage the mine or to obstruct its working;

(i) is a machine, appliance, apparatus, building, erection, bridge or road, appertaining to or used with a mine, whether the thing in question is completed or not;

(j) being a rope, chain or tackle of whatever material, which is used in a mine, or upon any way or work appertaining to or used with a mine, is destroyed;

(k) being any such rope, chain or tackle, as referred to in paragraph

(j) of this subsection, is damaged, and the damage is done with intent to destroy the thing in question or to render it useless; or

(l) is a well, or bore for water, or the dam, bank, wall or floodgate of a millpond or pool, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

(8) If the property in question is a document which is deposited or kept in a public office or which is evidence of title to any land or estate in land, the offender commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

336. Attempt to destroy property by explosives.

Any person who, unlawfully and with intent to destroy or damage any property, puts any explosive substance in any place commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

337. Communicating infectious diseases to animals.

Any person who wilfully and unlawfully causes, or is concerned in causing, or attempts to cause, any infectious disease to be communicated to or among any animal or animals capable of being stolen commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

338. Removing boundary marks.

Any person who wilfully and unlawfully and with intent to defraud removes or defaces any object or mark which has been lawfully erected or made as an indication of the boundary of any land commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years.

339. Wilful damage, etc. to survey and boundary marks.

Any person who— (a) wilfully removes, defaces or injures any survey mark or boundary mark which shall have been made or erected by or under the direction of any Government department or in the course of or for the purposes of a Government survey;

(b) being under an obligation to maintain in repair any boundary mark made or erected, as provided in paragraph (a) of this section, neglects or refuses to repair it; or

(c) wilfully removes, defaces or injures any survey mark erected by any person authorised or licensed by the Government to conduct survey operations or any mark erected by the holder of, or by an intending applicant for, any lease, licence or right under a written law relating to mines or minerals, commits a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for three months or to a fine of four hundred shillings, and may further be ordered by the court to pay the cost of repairing or replacing the survey mark or boundary mark and of making any survey rendered necessary by the offender’s act or neglect.

340. Penalties for damage, etc. to railway works.

Any person who— (a) wilfully damages, injures or obstructs any work, way, road, building, turnstile, gate, toll bar, fence, weighing machine, engine, tender, carriage, wagon, truck, material or plant, acquired for or belonging to any railway works;

(b) pulls up, removes, defaces or destroys or in any way interferes with any poles, stakes, flags, pegs, lines, marks or anything driven or placed in or upon the ground, trees, stones or buildings, or any other material, belonging to any railway works;

(c) commits any nuisance or trespass in or upon any land, buildings or premises, acquired for or belonging to any railway works; or

(d) wilfully molests, hinders or obstructs the officer in charge of any railway or his or her assistants or workmen in the execution of any work done or to be done in reference to the construction or maintenance of any such railway, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for five years or to a fine of fifty thousand shillings.

341. Threats to burn, etc.

Any person who, knowing the contents of it, sends, delivers, utters or directly or indirectly causes to be received, any letter or writing threatening to burn or destroy any house, barn or other building, or any rick or stack of grain, hay or straw, or other agricultural produce, whether in or under any building or not, or any vessel, or to kill, maim or wound any cattle, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for ten years

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