Jailed Kajubi begs Supreme Court for lenient penalty

The appeal case in which jailed businessman Godfrey Kato Kajubi is challenging life imprisonment awaits judgment before the Supreme Court.

A panel of five justices of the highest appellate chaired by Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo said they will deliver their judgment on notice.

Other justices are Rubby Opio Aweri, Ezekiel Muhanguzi, Percy Night Tuhaise and Prof Lillian Tibatemwa.

The decision followed the hearing of submissions in which Kajubi pleaded to the court for mercy and lenience to grant a 15-year jail punishment citing advanced age of 64.

He asked the court to consider his 47 dependents, most of whom have dropped out of school as a result of his incarceration and collapse of his business empire.

“The appellant has in the last eight years of imprisonment reformed, suffered loss and social humiliation. The appellant then as a prominent businessman, coupled with the unrelenting media coverage and conviction contributed greatly to the aggravation of his sentence,” he pleaded through his lawyers.

Kajubi is currently serving a life imprisonment at Luzira Upper Prison after he was convicted of murdering a 12-year-old Joseph Kasirye.

He was in 2012 sentenced to life imprisonment for hiring Umar Kateregga, a witchdoctor and his wife Mariam Nabukeera to slaughter the juvenile for ritual sacrifice.

However, in his submission, Kajubi contends that his trial was negatively covered that it sunk into the national consciousness that he is a callous unforgiving murderer.

“While the appellant still protests his innocence, this court is most humbly invited to reduce the sentence to the period proposed in the event his conviction is upheld. The appellant still has much to contribute to society and is sorry for the death of Kasirye that he maintains he was not responsible for,” reads part of the submission.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), however, maintains that Kajubi was rightly convicted and sentenced, and thus his appeal ought to be dismissed and punishment upheld.

“The Court of Appeal in its judgment rightly observed that the trial judge has the discretion to pass a sentence that he deems fit. They, therefore, rightly found no sufficient reason to disturb the sentence since it was neither so low nor manifestly excessive,” the DPP said.

Prosecution

Prosecution adduced evidence showing that Kajubi had taken Joseph Kasirye’s head and genitals to be used in “cleansing” his real estate businesses after the sacrifice prompting the then High Court judge Mike Chibita to sentence him to life imprisonment.

Prosecution said Kajubi sponsored the ritual murder of the 12-year-old in Mukungwe Sub-county in Masaka District on October 27, 2008.