State asks court of Appeal to reject Kajubi's appeal

By Hillary Nsambu

Principal State Attorneys Alex Michael Ojok and Simon Peter Ssemalemba on Monday asked the Court of Appeal to reject city tycoon Godfrey Kato Kajubi’s criminal appeal arguing that the trial court properly convicted him for ritual murder.

The attorneys who represented the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were opposing Kajubi’s appeal against conviction and the sentence of imprisonment for life, saying that the trial judge convicted him after properly evaluating the evidence on record.

Anthony Wameli, who represented Kajubi, had submitted that Kajubi should be set free because the trial court at Masaka relied on uncorroborated evidence of Umar Kateregga and his wife Mariam Nabukeera to convict him of the ritual murder of the 12-year-old boy Joseph Kasirye.

Kateregga, who was Kajubi’s traditional doctor, testified that he (Kajubi) and his aide, who was known by one name Stephen, slaughtered the boy in his (Kateregga’s) house after sedating him.

Kateregga also testified that he had lured the innocent boy into their house after Kajubi had asked him for a boy of not more than 12 years old who would pick eggs at his Gayaza’s poultry firm near Masaka Municipality.

However, at the trial in Masaka, Kateregga told court that the deal turned sour when Kajubi and his aide Stephen arrived at his house at midnight and demanded for the boy whom he sedated with adulterated soda before they could slaughter him like a goat.

Kateregga told the court that he had lured the boy into his where he they slaughtered him like a goat after he (Kateregga) had lured him from his grandparents’ home that was within a stone’s throw. Upon luring the boy into his house where they kept him until Kajubi arrived with his aide and carried out the ritual murder.

However, Wameli told court that Kateregga and his wife were accomplices who cannot incriminate Kajubi on their claims.

The attorneys, however, submitted that despite being accomplices, the two witnesses were truthful. Kateregga led the police where Kajubi had driven them that fateful night for purposes of dumping the decapitated body of the slaughtered boy and they found it there.

The attorneys asked the court to dismiss Kajubi’s appeal submitted that Kateregga had also led the police to different homes of Kajubi despite the fact that he (Kajubi) had told the police that he did not know Kateregga at all. That proved that the two knew each other very well and what he was telling the court was the truth.
Justices Remmy Kasule, Faith Mwondha and Eldad Mwangusya presided over the appeal. They said that they would give their judgment on a day to be announced in future.