The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Today Joseph Kasirye would be 24 years old. But he will never be. It has taken 12 years to quest for justice for 12-year old Joseph Kasirye who was cruelly slaughtered in a witchdoctor’s shrine in Masaka. Finally, all the legal arguments are done and the next court session over the matter will be delivering the very final judgement.
Sitting in Kololo, the Supreme Court has today consolidated two appeals by businessman Kasirye’s convicted killer, Godfrey Kato Kajubi who is challenging the life imprisonment sentence handed to him for the murdering.
A panel of five Justices led by the Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo on Tuesday consolidated two criminal appeals that Kajubi filed separately by using two different law firms.
The other Justices on the panel are Professor Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza, Opio Aweri, Percy Night Tuhaise and Ezekiel Muhanguzi.
The only difference in Kajubi’s two appeals is that one was filed by a law firm of Wameli and Company Advocates in 2019 and another by Nakaga and Company Advocates in October 2020. But they are all challenging one aspect of his conviction and subsequent sentence handed to him by the then Masaka High Court Judge Mike Chibita.
However after consolidation, the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Simon Peter Semalemba told the Justices that he had responded to only one appeal by Wameli and Company Advocates and asked to be guided on how to proceed.
In their guidance, the Justices said the DPP’s submissions are going to be adopted such that they can be reflected to respond to both appeals since they all have similar grounds then judgement will be on notice.
Kajubi was in July 2012 found guilty by the then Masaka High Court Judge Mike Chibita for murdering 12-year-old boy Joseph Kasirye on October 27, 2008.
Court found that there was overwhelming evidence that Kajubi hired a witch doctor Umar Kateregga and his wife Mariam Nabukeera to kill Kasirye, a pupil of Kayugi Primary School in Mukungwe sub-county in Masaka district for ritual purposes.
The evidence that was relied upon by Justice Chibita indicates that Kajubi cut off Kasirye’s head and genitals and disappeared with them to be used in his real estate businesses in Kampala, Jinja and Masaka and to date, those body parts have never been seen again.
Justice Chibita handed Kajubi a life imprisonment sentence after conviction.
However, Kajubi challenged the conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal but it was upheld.
Kajubi then appealed to the Supreme Court on grounds that the witch doctor and his wife’s testimonies were full of grave inconsistencies meant to exonerate Kateregga with intentions of implicating Kajubi which was improper according to him.
His lawyers argued further to that, the lower court Judges did not consider the charge and caution statement made at police by Kateregga where he reportedly admitted to having slaughtered the boy. They also noted that the sentence was harsh and that it was not consistent with others sentences passed to similar offenders in cases of similar nature.
But the Directorate of Public Prosecutions on its part wants this appeal dismissed because all the actions by Kajubi after murder like going into hiding and later lying that he was not in Masaka on the fateful day yet the print outs from MTN placed him at the scene of crime all indicate that he is guilty as charged.
The appeal of Kajubi has delayed for many years due to the issue of quorum as some of the Justices of the Supreme Court have never handled his case before in the lower courts while others who were meant to hear it have since retired before it was concluded.
Earlier before the case hearing started, the head of the panel Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo was not happy with one of the clerks who pronounced his name wrongly while introducing the Justices on the panel. Owiny-Dollo had to first tell the clerk how his name is pronounced saying that he doesn’t like it when people mispronounce his name.
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