Today, the murder trial of Mathew Kanyamunyu, his girlfriend Cynthia Muwangari and his brother Joseph Kanyamunyu resumed in the Criminal Division of the High Court presided over by Justice Steven Mubiru.
Prosecution alleges that Mathew Kanyamunyu drew out his pistol, shot and killed Kenneth Akena at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds in Lugogo after he had mistakenly scratched the rear of his car while parking.
Joseph, Kanyamunyu’s bother is being separately charged with being an accessory to the murder as he tried to hide the murder weapon to save his brother from indictment.
The trial was delayed for a few hours this morning as court was looking for a French-English interpreter for Mathew’s girlfriend Cynthia Muwangari, a Burundian national.
When it finally kicked off, Justice Steven Mubiru was notified by the defendants’ lawyers MacDosman Kabega, Caleb Alaka and Evans Ochieng that the co-accused, Joseph Kanyamunyu was sick and could not make it to court, and so asked for the trial to be adjourned until he recovers.
Mubiru noted that he had indeed examined Joseph’s medical report but said that since they don’t know when he will be healthy enough to attend the trial sessions, the case has to be broken into two separate trials so that key suspects Mathew and his girlfriend Cynthia can be tried together, and Joseph’s trial will proceed when he has recovered.
“I have examined the medical reports of A3 (Joseph); it s not clear as to when he will be healthy enough to attend the trial and since the period of his absence is indefinite, I find it unreasonable to adjourn the case to await his recovery which recovery, we have no idea as to when it will come. Therefore, I find that this case has to be decided in favour of ordering for a separate trial for A3 (Joseph) and a trial for A1 (Mathew) and A2 (Cynthia) will have to continue. The prosecution is therefore, given up to 2pm today to make any necessary amendments in the indictment and proceed,” Justice Mubiru ruled.