By Muhimbise George.
I was at Makerere University, and as I moved through the gates, my eyes gazed at young gentlemen & ladies, who came to pursue their future.
As I reflected on it, I imagined the hustle parents go through to raise their children throughout school up to Makerere or any other University for that matter.
Most importantly, the girl child; apart from the obvious tuition they will demand for this & that; money for hostels, meals, shopping, photocopying, handouts, hair, airtime, make up, data etc.
As I thought about it, I remembered the horror story that I have been reading about in the media in which an innocent lady Desire Mirembe who was pursuing her degree in medicine was brutally murdered and dumped in a sugarcane plantation by a fellow medical student & evil guy that Museveni would qualify for a pig who later turned to be Mathew Kirabo, the prime suspect in this gruesome murder.
The overwhelming evidence from thirteen witnesses, a video in which Mathew Kirabo confessed to police on how he murdered Desire including leading them to the crime scene and a medical report indicating how the (suspected) murderer had a medical knowledge is enough to have sent Mathew to jail.
Unfortunately this Mathew is somewhere eating sausages and sipping wine enjoying honey moon with his American wife that he recently wedded, thanks to our judiciary!
I put myself in the shoes of the family of Desire, an imagination that you too can make!
Imagine if it was your daughter, your wife, your sister or your mother and she is killed and the justice system for six years is simply in ping pong unable to convict the murderer despite the overwhelming evidence presented before it!
Most often we hide behind backlog, insufficient evidence, lack of investigations as a scapegoat to cover the rot in judiciary but for Kirabo’s case, it is not only glaring incompetence on the side of judiciary but real impunity.
How do you explain a situation where police completed investigations in two months & court takes six years to start hearing the case?
How do you explain a situation where a suspect who had confessed to have killed a fellow student would be given bail by Justice Eva Luswata to do exams as if the one he murdered was not a student?
Indeed he went on and graduated and is now a medical doctor, and the fate of Desire whose future he terminated is in the grave.
How do you explain a situation where court sat twice in five years; one time to give bail to a suspect to go for exams and another time when the same suspect was applying for his passport to go abroad to study a master’s degree?
How do you explain an excuse by the then Principle judge Yorokam Bamwine that court didn’t have money to hear the case yet during the same period many similar cases were heard & disposed of?
How do you explain a situation where upon suspect’s failure to appear in court, his sureties who were family members mobilized and paid a bond of Shs.150 million in one day?
How do you convince Desire’s family that there is justice in Uganda when they have been hiring two taxis to attend court expecting justice only to listen to blatant lies and forgeries by Mathew Kirabo’s lawyers?
When a country has gone to dogs, judges sit in high tables with wigs on their heads but virtually with emptiness, the law is applied selectively and citizens are made helpless, lawyers cheat clients as police men steal exhibits, doctors abuse patients as teachers marry their students, for sure; when judges become scavengers, the bank of justice runs bankrupt!
The case of Desire makes you question whether we have a government in place, a President or Chief Justice, a Parliament or indeed if everyone is on himself and God for us all!
Shame upon the judiciary, shame upon the former Principle Judge Bamwine, shame upon you lady Justice Eva Luswata who gave bail to Kirabo, shame upon the NRM government!
Muhimbise George, muhimbiseg@gmail.com, +256787836515
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858
Discussion about this post