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Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Director of Prosecutions has rejected Superintendent of Police Vincent Irama Urri’s second bail application, saying he is a flight risk.

SP Irama, 45, attached to Kampala Metropolitan North is accused of murdering city lawyer Ronnie Mukisa (RIP).

Mukisa was gunned down on May 30, at 11:00 pm, while at his home in Kitiko-Birongo, Ndejje Division, Wakiso District.

Responding to Irama’s second bid for bail on Monday (February 12, 2024), Lt Col Raphael Mugisha, the UPDF Director of Prosecutions, told the General Court Martial (GCM) at Makindye in Kampala that they are ready to expedite the applicant’s trial, requesting the court not to grant the accused bail.

“The applicant is charged alongside five others with a capital offence (murder) which carries a maximum sentence of death and therefore he is likely to abscond and a flight risk,” Col Mugisha argued.

The prosecution further defended their want of not granting the applicant bail, saying, “Having a fixed place of abode, substantial sureties, and family responsibilities is not cogent reasons to warrant the release of the applicant on bail.”

Other prosecutors on the panel are Lt Alex Mukhwana, Private Anthony Phillip Olupot, and Private Regina Nanzala.

Irama is battling the charges alongside UPDF officers Corporal Geoffrey Mark Anyesa, 51, a resident of Kisasi, Kulambiro, in Nakawa Division, and Sergeant Rashid Ayup Okot, 33, aboding at Kafunda Kazo, Nabweru in Nansana Municipality.

Others are civilians Mzee Josebert Hayeza, 51, Robert Irama Kareodu, 50, and his wife Brenda Cathy Nalwoga, 29, both residents of Kisasi.

In response, the defence led by Elizabeth Nyasingwa, Capt. Simon Nsubuga Busagwa and Private Priscilla Kakande reiterated their earlier prayer and requested the GCM to find the applicant’s sureties substantial and grant him bail.

“The accused cannot interfere with state investigations, we, therefore pray that you find his sureties substantial and grant him bail,” said Nyasingwa.

The charge

The prosecution alleges that Irama, Anyase, Ayubu, Hayeza, Kareodu, and Nalwoga on or around May 30, 2023, at about 2300 hours at Katiko in Wakiso district, with malice aforethought, unlawfully caused the death of Mukisa.

GCM chairman Brig. Gen Robert Freeman Mugabe remanded Irama back to Luzira Upper Government Prison till February 20, 2024, for a bail ruling.