High Court Judge Wilson Masalu-Musene has stepped down from hearing the case in which city businessman Andrew Kananura (alias Desh) is accused of beating to death his former employee, Badru Katerega.
The inaugural hearing of the murder charges against Kananura and four others was set to kick off today, having delayed for over four years now, but citing a story he read in one of the local tabloid over the case, the judge has disqualified himself. Jusges are allwoed to disqualify themselves from cases if they feel they won’t be able to handle them.
Mr. Musene today argued that a story containing misleading information purporting that he had personal interests in the case.
“I put it on record that the case be allocated to a different judge for justice to prevail,” the judge pronounced, before giving as another reason for his pulling out the fact that presently he has many other cases to handle.
Mr. Kananura’s case has now dragged on for more than four years without making any real headway.
Kananura is charged with having –on September 30, 2012– tortured his bartender Katerega to death at his Panamera Bar, after they found him with sh30, 000 that exceeded the allowed amount to be held by any worker at the bar.
According to the penal code, any person who is convicted of murder faces a maximum penalty of death.