Court's verdict in tycoon Kajubi appeal for June 12

Jun 08, 2014

City tycoon Godfrey Kato-Kajubi, who was sentenced to life in prison by the High Court for the ritual murder of a young boy, will know the fate of his appeal against the conviction and the sentence on Thursday.

By Hillary Nsambu

KAMPALA - City tycoon Godfrey Kato-Kajubi, who was sentenced to life in prison by the High Court for the ritual murder of a young boy, will know the fate of his appeal against the conviction and the sentence on Thursday.

According to the production warrant for Kato-Kajubi to be produced in court from Luzira maximum prison on that day, the Court of Appeal is set to deliver its verdict at 9.30 am local time.

The warrant was signed by the court’s registrar Deo Nizeimana.

In July 2012, the High Court sitting at Masaka sentenced Kato-Kajubi to imprisonment for the rest of his life following a retrial.

He is accused of sacrificing 12-year-old Joseph Kasirye with the help of his henchman known only as Steven.

Initially, the trial court that was presided over by Justice Moses Mukiibi had set Kato-Kajubi free without having uttered a single word in defence. His defence lawyer MacDosman Kabega had submitted that the accused should be acquitted as he had no case to answer.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was gravely dissatisfied after producing over ten witnesses, including a witch doctor Umar Kateregga and his wife Mariam Nabukeera.

Following the DPP’s appeal, the Court of Appeal in 2010 ruled that the initial trial court had failed to evaluate the whole evidence on record and had left a lot to be desired.

It also observed that there were a lot of questions concerning the murder of the boy that Kato-Kajubi must answer and, as such, the first trial court should have put him on his defence.

 All the three justices of the appellate court ruled in unison ruled for Kato-Kajubi’s retrial.

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Witchdoctor Umar Kateregga has been one of the witnesses in the case. FILE PHOTO/Eddie Ssejjoba

Following the Court of Appeal ruling, Kato-Kajubi disappeared for over a year. But, the police re-arrested him allegedly from a witch doctor’s shrine near Kajjansi along Kampala-Entebbe road.

After a full retrial in 2012, Justice Mike Chibita wa Dualo ruled that the court had found overwhelming evidence incriminating Kato-Kajubi into the ritual murder of the boy.

He ordered that the city tycoon should spend the rest of his life behind bars, hence this appeal.

Umar Kateregga, the witch doctor involved, made a confession in his evidence against Kato-Kajubi.

He told court that on October 27, 2008, he lured Joseph Kasirye from his grandparents’ home in the neighbourhood at Kayugi village.

That he then kept him in his house under the guard of his wife Nabukeera, purporting that Kato-Kajubi was going to employ him to pick eggs in his poultry firm at Gayaza-Masaka.

Kateregga further told the court he and his wife kept Kasirye in their house without the knowledge of his grandparents until slightly after midnight of the same date until Kato-Kajubi arrived at their home with his henchman he introduced as Steven.

They first intoxicated the boy with a soda before slaughtering him in presence of the witchdoctor and his wife. 


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