Uganda court jails Kenyan student for 45 years

By OSINDE OBARE

The High Court in Kampala has sentenced a Kenyan student at Makerere University to 45 years imprisonment for the murder of his lover.

Duke Mabeya was found guilty of murdering Ruth Nyarangi, also a Kenyan student at Bugema University. Mabeya, who was residing at Douglas Villa Hostel near Makerere, is said to have committed the offence on November 5, 2008, at Umka Guest House in Kawaala Zone B, Rubaga Division.

Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi found Mabeya, a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student, guilty of the murder.

Grisly act

"The act of booking a room and using a pseudo-name shows a mind that was determined to do evil. He was cold and calculating in the commission of his grisly act," the judge was quoted as saying in the New Vision, which covered the trial.

The court was told on the fateful day, Mabeya booked a room at the guesthouse under the names of Jackson Tumu. And the deceased was later found lying in a pool of blood in the guesthouse’s bathroom. She was a first-year Bachelor of Education degree student.

According to the prosecution, the deceased gave Mabeya her tuition fees of Sh40,000 and requested him to deposit it for her in the Bugema University account in the Bank of Africa.

However, the university later detected fraud when its copy of the bank slip showed the whole amount had been paid, while that of the bank showed only Sh12,000 was paid.

Mabeya was charged with the murder on November 14, 2008, at Mwanga II Court and was remanded. His trial started on October 25, last year. He denied being at the crime scene on the fateful day.

Police report

A police search of his room on November 11, 2008, found human tissue and bloodstained clothes and handkerchiefs and DNA tests proved the blood was that of Nyarangi.

Mabeya pleaded for leniency, saying he had reformed while in remand. But the judge said the offence was serious and handed him the sentence, which his lawyer Duncan Ondimu said he would appeal.