Africa-Press – Uganda. The Court of Appeal has upheld a 25 years punishment against a man who was convicted of murder of a mission worker in 2010.
In 2011, the High Court convicted and sentenced Kenneth Kugonza to 25 years imprisonment for murder.
Court records show that Kugonza stabbed to death Emmanuel Musinguzi, a former worker at Xavarian mission of the Catholic Church in Kyenjojo District.
In a unanimous judgment, a three-member panel led by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, ruled that the appeal by Kugonza did not pass the test.
Other judges are Irene Mulyagonja and Eva Luswata.
“We find that although some courts have imposed lower sentences (punishments) in cases of murder, on the whole, the cases cited demonstrate that there is support for the sentence of 25 years imprisonment. They prove that the sentence was not in any way extra ordinarily out of range,” Deputy Chief Justice Buteera ruled.
Kugonza had appealed against the conviction and the 25 years imprisonment which he described as excessive and illegal for failing to consider the period he had spent on remand.
But the court of appeal judges ruled that the trial High Court judge made no error when he did not arithmetically deduct from the sentence the period of one year and three months that Kugonza spent on remand before conviction.
“As to whether the trial judge ignored the mitigating factors that were advanced on behalf of the appellant before sentence, we note that the trial judge took into consideration some mitigating factors before he did the aggravating factors. He considered the youthful age of the appellant which was only 20 years, the fact that he was a first-time offender and he was said to suffer from tuberculosis,” the court ruled.
How it happened
Court records indicate that in January 24, 2010 at Katosa Village in Kyenjojo District, the appellant Kugonza and a one Karugaba Robert attacked members of the Xavarian Movement as they were on their way to Katosa Church to prepare for a function.
The duo began to insult the Xaverians by referring to them as prisoners and demanding that they tell them where they were going.
Court heard that Kugonza grabbed their mission section leader, Robert Muhumuza, and a scuffle ensued to free him.
“Unknown to the Xavarians, the appellant (Kugonza) had a knife with him which he used to defend himself. He used it to stab Muhumuza who fell down in pain. The appellant then grabbed the stave that was held by the deceased and a pole and ran away with it. The deceased ran after him to get the stave back but the appellant stopped, turned and stabbed him in the neck and fled from the scene. The deceased sustained a massive injury and was taken to hospital but it was too late to save him. He died as a result of his injury,” reads the court records.
According to the court, Kugonza was arrested two days later and prosecuted for murder together with Robert Karugaba but the charges against Karugaba were withdrawn because he escaped from custody and was never found.
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