Children help identify grandmother’s killers

It wasn’t bad timing, the crime would have taken place without tracing any suspects. And at 8pm on the night of July 13, 2004, a killing at Kangore, Sheema County happened. Jolly Ntegyereize, an elderly woman, had just served her two grandchildren, Richard Nimusiima and Wilbert Ahimbisibwe, supper. Both her grandchildren were below 12 years. The trio this time had their supper in the kitchen. Being young, they rested near the fire place as their grandmother prepared a few things in the kitchen. Ntegyereize needed some water to clear the dishes, so she picked a basin to fetch water from the main house. As she walked there, she was intercepted by people she couldn’t recognize, and within seconds, she was thrown into panic. Before she could concentrate to identify them, they had already started hacking her. Instant pain forced her to scream waking up her grandchildren. What Nimusiima and Ahimbisibwe saw was so horrific that they both rushed back into the kitchen to hide. The attackers heard the footsteps of someone in the kitchen drawing backwards. One attacker abandoned his colleague and went for a fast search. The two boys watched in horror and fear as their grandmother was in agony as the first attacker continued to hack her.

Witness ordeal

“When I saw the second attacker about to reach the kitchen, I chose to take off,” Ahimbisibwe recalled as he narrated to the detectives. The second attacker couldn’t allow him run away. He confronted him. But the attacker managed to injure him with a machete before he outmaneuvered and escaped through the banana plantation. Nimusiima later said after they had responded to their grandmother’s scream, he had made a few steps and hid in a room near the kitchen. The second attacker returned after failing to catch up with the boy. He searched around the kitchen. “The light from the fireplace illuminated his face and I saw him clearly though he often looked over where I was without seeing me,” Nimusiima later said. Nimusiima was in a vantage place since he could see what was happening. The first attacker continued to injure his grandmother even when she was motionless. The two attackers seemed to be bothered that a child had fled the scene. They also quickly left. After sometime, Ahimbisibwe returned with neighbours. They couldn’t salvage much. Ahimbisibwe’s grandmother was lifeless. After seeing respondents, Nimusiima came out of the hiding. Police officers were called although they delayed. An investigation commenced with an interrogation of the two boys. Ahimbisibwe told detectives that he had seen their neighbours Paul Kakubi and David Muramuzi attacking their grandmother. “Kakubi had a machete which he used to hack my grandmother in the neck. As Kakubi hit grandmother, Muramuzi came looking for us in the kitchen,” Ahimbisibwe told detectives. When detectives asked Nimusiima, he also had a similar narration. In the morning, detectives visited Kakubi and Muramuzi’s home for verification. Neither the two nor their families were at home. Their homes had been deserted, raising suspicion.

Locals plan lynching

News spread about the incident. Some residents got so angry about what had happened to a member of their community that they wanted Kakubi and Muramuzi lynched. Police intensified their hunt for the duo before the mob could land their hands on them. Fortunately, Kakubi, Muramuzi and their father George Karyeija had already handed themselves to Kyanyenyi Sub-county authorities. Mr Ngambeki went to the subcounty and arrested the trio. The case appeared to be crystal clear. Dr Frank Mugabe, who had carried out an autopsy on Ntegyereize’s body, said the deceased died of injuries after she was cut in the neck and her spinal cord was damaged. Dr Mugabe concluded excessive bleeding was the cause of her death. Mr Ngambeki had two eyewitnesses and the people they claimed to have seen had been arrested. It was believed that the trio had disappeared from the village after the incident due to guilt. Interrogation of the suspects opened fresh questions in the case. Kakubi, Muramuzi and Karyeija told the detectives that they spent a night at the vigil of Apollo Katunda’s daughter at Omukashenyi village, which they said was 15km away from Kangwe village where the murder happened. The suspects told police that they left their home more than 10 hours before the incident happened. Police had to subject their claims to a test. They went back to the village where the trio claimed to have been at around 8pm. Police confirmed that the allegations by the suspects that a person closer to their family had died and a vigil was held were true. Katunda, who held a vigil for her dead daughter, confirmed to the police that he saw the trio at his home the whole day. He said he even interacted with them.

Silvesta Rugwira, the village chairman, and his members also wrote a letter confirming to have seen the trio at the funeral. Juliet Kyomuhendo, a resident, also told detectives that she saw the trio at the funeral.

More investigations

A dozen statements from several people confirming the suspects’ explanation meant that the detectives had to go back to the field to gather more information about the case. Mr Ngambeki talked to the witnesses again. Kyomuhendo told detectives that the deceased was believed to be a witchdoctor in the community and that her neighbors feared her. She said some of the residents felt that she had to leave the village for them to have peace. “I found Karyeija talking to my brother Erias Birondwa asking him to monitor the deceased’s movement so that they can attack her. I rejected the move. Birondwa ridiculed me as a coward. He said the woman deserves death,” Kyomuhendo said. Asked when the two made such statements, she told detectives that it was two days before the death. Detectives sought the statements from Birondwa who denied meeting the suspect for any sinister motive. When he was pressed during interrogation, he conceded to have had the conversation with Karyeija though he didn’t take any action. Two other people told police that they saw Kakubi and his brother in the evening of the fateful day riding a bicycle to the village where the woman was murdered. The two witnesses helped detectives place Kakubi and Muramuzi at the scene.

File to DPP

Police officers were convinced that the duo killed the deceased whom they accused of witchcraft. Their file was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions and it was sanctioned. The suspects were produced  in court on charges of murder and remanded to prison. In 2005, the hearing of the case before Justice Lawrence Gidudu started in Bushenyi High Court. Both Kakubi and Muramuzi maintained a denial of the charges. Prosecutors presented the young boys in court who were able to identify the suspects and also narrated what they saw on the fateful day. In court, there was no much fight on the ingredients of murder except one whether the two accused persons participated in the killing. The deceased’s relatives told court

that at one time before the killing, the suspects had engaged them to have the witchcraft allegations against Ntegyereize be resolved in a local council meeting, but the deceased refused to attend the meeting. Prosecution insisted that on the fateful day, the suspects rode from vigil and carried out the attack then travelled back since they knew that they would have an explanation. They expected to encounter only one person- their target. Fortunately, Ntegyereize was with her grandchildren in the kitchen. In their defense, Kakubi and Muramuzi maintained that they were at a vigil the night the elderly woman was killed. In his judgment four years later, Justice Gidudu said the killing “was planned to happen with the funeral and burial of Katunda’s daughter providing the necessary opportunity and cover after the murder”. “I find both accused guilty of murder contrary to sections 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act and I convict each of them accordingly,” Justice Gidudu said. The two were sentenced to death for killing Ntegyereize.

Legally speaking

Murder is an offence under section 188 of the penal code act cap 120 which states that any person who of malice aforethought causes the death of another person through an unlawful act or omission commits the offence of murder. Section 189 of the penal code act cap 120 states that any person convicted of murder shall be sentenced to death (being maximum sentence)

The trio can be convicted as joint offenders as provided for under section 20 of the penal code act.

A child's evidence can be admitted in court but before evidence of a child is admitted in court a “voire dire” must have been carried out, this is simply a trial within a trial where the trial judge tries to establish whether the children understand what they are talking about and whether they are able to give a truthful recollection of the facts. After the judge establishes that the children are competent, he can go ahead and allow the children testify in court.

This article is courtesy of The Daily Monitor and edited by Advocate Ricky Mudali.