EC official killer to serve life in jail

By Norah Chandiru               

 KAMPALA - High Court judge Frank Rugadya has sentenced the murderer of former Electoral Commission principal accountant to life in Luzira prison and freed five others.

Judge Rugadya convicted and sentenced Allan Kamwana basing on his confession to the murder in a statement he made, which proved beyond every reasonable doubt that he was guilty to the offence.

In his statement, 23-year-old Kamwana 23 admitted that he had shot dead Ben Joseph Mawanda using a gun on the fateful night and later gave it to his accomplice.

The judge emphasized that nobody should take away the life of another, worse still in such a crude manner as the convict had done.

He added that Kamwana had deprived the deceased’s family of a breadwinner, a husband, a father and a friend, and that he needs no leniency in conviction.

Rugadya considered the one year and four months Kamwana had spent in prison before his life sentence and informed him that he has a right to appeal against the sentence in the Supreme Court in 14 days.

He acquitted the other five accused on grounds that the evidence presented against them was of the weakest kind – that prosecution had contradictions in the statements of the witnesses and therefore failed to place each of the fiveat the scene of crime.

It is alleged that on the night of July 5, 2011 Kamwana along with Yusuf Lubega, Abdu Male, Hood Mugerwa, Richard Segawa and Abbas Jemba and others still at large shot and killed Mwanda at his Nabaziza zone residence in Kyengera, Wakiso district, as he fed his dogs.