By Jessica Sabano
Africa-Press – Uganda. When Mathew Kirabo was driven to the High Court in Mukono on Friday at the back of a police pick-up truck, he used a grey sweater to hide his handcuffed wrists and a surgical mask to obscure the lower half of his face.
As a trained medical doctor, Kirabo should be familiar with the disposable-type surgical mask and its intrinsic value. When he was studying the ropes of medicine with Desire Mirembe, never would he have thought the mask would shield him from the prying eyes of the media. He also, presumably, never imagined turning a surgical blade or scalpel on Mirembe who, until things soured in July of 2015, was his girlfriend.
“Do you know the pain of a child, you journalists? Do you know the pain of being a parent? Why are you taking his photos? Stop it! I will beat you,” an elderly woman presumed to be Kirabo’s kin protested on Friday as he approached the High Court’s premises on Friday.
Justice David Matovu would later remand Kirabo, pending further management of his murder case. A manhunt that commenced on November 3, 2021 after Kirabo jumped bail culminated in his arrest on September 12 in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi at the hands of the International Police or Interpol.
Convicted in absentia
Police said Kirabo, who was on May 30, 2022 convicted in absentia of murdering Mirembe, had attempted to alter his appearance while at large.
Sporting an off-white round neck tee shirt and brown pants, Kirabo looked more fleshy than his last public appearance—during an introduction ceremony in which he exchanged pleasantries with his new girlfriend, reported to be an American citizen.
“Such people should not be allowed to stay in public. He is not remorseful at all as he has been on the run,” Mr Emmanuel Musoke, the father of Mirembe whom Kirabo confessed to killing in 2015 when she was a sophomore medical student, told Sunday Monitor on Friday.
Kirabo’s confession was taped and was a key cog in his conviction. Desperate to get a measure of closure, Mr Musoke hopes that “they don’t take us back to appeal because we have suffered and struggled for justice since 2015.”
Mr Frank Gashumba, a businessman who has offered support to Mr Musoke, who raised Mirembe as a single parent since childhood, reckons Kirabo was intent on “frustrating the case” from the get-go.
“We thank God that he was arrested and applaud Col Edith Nakalema and the Principal Judge [Justice Flavian Zeija] who have been supportive in searching for him,” Mr Gashumba said.
No closure
Mr Musoke told Sunday Monitor that Kirabo deserves, at best, life imprisonment or at worst the death sentence.
Justice Matovu remanded Kirabo upon execution of a warrant of arrest as a convict for the offence of murder contrary to Section 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act, pending sentencing proceedings. On a taped confession in the possession of the police, Kirabo said he murdered Kirabo on July 11, 2015. This followed what was described as a “misunderstanding.”
Upon killing his erstwhile girlfriend, Kirabo dumped her remains in a sugarcane plantation in Lugazi, Buikwe District. Kirabo had earlier picked up Mirembe from Ark Hostel in Katanga, where she was residing. The two then went to a mall in Kampala where they hoped to resolve their misunderstanding. Mirembe would never be seen alive after.
Prosecution told the court in 2022 that Kirabo led a delegation of police officers to the scene of crime and explained how he killed Mirembe. A video of him making the confession was shot. Yet prior to his trial in absentia, Kirabo, on October 6, 2021, pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder under the guidance of his lawyer Ali Hassan Kato.
Jumping bail
Mr Kato then asked the court to maintain his client’s bail status. Happiness Ainebyona, the state attorney, didn’t object to the request on grounds that prosecution had “not yet received any information of [Kirabo] being a flight risk yet.”
Whereas the court maintained Kirabo’s bail status, it was forced to issue an arrest warrant on November 3, 2021 after he went AWOL. The court then proceeded with the case in Kirabo’s absence after his three sureties paid Shs150 million.
In his 2022 judgment, Justice Isabirye Kaweesa told court that the evidence provided was sufficient to pin Kirabo for murder. The video in which Kirabo made the confession to police officers was crucial.
Kirabo took the officers to where he had hidden the phones and asked to be forgiven since he is a Born Again Christian.
“His run affected us a lot because we could not move to another place thinking that he would be arrested anytime when we are not around,” Mr Musoke said.
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