The Court of Appeal has upheld a 25-year jail term handed to Kenneth Kugonza for murdering a Xaverian Movement Church leader, Emmanuel Musinguzi in Kyenjonjo district about 13 years ago.
The court heard that the deceased was a member of the Xaverian Movement in the Catholic Church who was killed on January 24, 2010, at Katosa Village in Kyenjojo District, at about 7 p.m. when members of the Xaverian Movement were on the way to Katosa Church to prepare for a function.
It is alleged that along the way, the Church group met Kugonza, alongside one Robert Karugaba who began to taunt the Xaverians by referring to them as prisoners on top of demanding an explanation on where they were heading to. Unknown to the Xaverians, Kugonza had a knife which he used to stab Musinguzi resulting in his death moments later.
Kugonza was arrested two days later and prosecuted for murder together with Robert Karugaba. However, the charges against Karugaba were withdrawn because he escaped from custody and was never found. At his trial, Kugonza pleaded not guilty but the trial judge Dan Akiiki Kiiza found sufficient evidence to convict him and sentenced him to serve 25 years in jail.
Kugonza appealed against the decision on three grounds. He said the trial judge erred by holding that he had been properly identified as the one who killed the deceased in darkness. He added that the judge erred in sentencing him to an illegal sentence because he did not take into account the period spent on remand as required by law and that the sentence was harsh and excessive.
Today Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, Justice Irene Mulyagonja and Eva Luswata ruled that there is no doubt that the attack on Musinguzi was part of a series of actions in the same transaction where Xaverians were taunted, while peacefully going about their business.
The Justices added that although some courts have imposed lower sentences in cases of murder, the maximum sentence for murder is death and custodial sentences range from 30 years and above. As such, they have said the sentence was not in any way extraordinarily out of range and that the prosecution witnesses ably identified the convict since the murder occurred in a twilight.
In the absence of a cogent reason for reducing the sentence of 25 years imprisonment, the sentence is upheld’, they said.