The High Court in Kampala has acquitted Abubaker Kalungi, one of the suspects in the case of the murder of Assistant Superintendent of Police Muhammad Kirumira and his friend Resty Nalinya.
Hajj Abubaker Kawooya, the father of Afande Kirumira attended the court session.
Kalungi was accused together with Hamza Mwebe of participating in the murder of Kirumira and Resty Nalinya.
Justice Margaret Mutonyi said that the prosecution failed to adduce substantial evidence to prove that Kalungi participated on September 8, 2018, in a double murder in Bulenga, Wakiso District.
According to court records, the prosecution alleged that Kalungi was hired by Mwebe and Abdu Kateregga to trail Kirumira and inform them of his whereabouts.
It was claimed that on a fateful day, Kalungi told Mwebe and Kateregga where Kirumira was, and the two rode up on motorcycles and shot the two people who were inside Kirumira’s car—Kirumira and Nalinya.
Kalungi, however, denied involvement in the killing and claimed that on the day of the shootings, he was working on a roof in Ndejje Kibutika and went home after work.
The judge noted in her decision that three of the four elements of murder—death, an unlawful death, and malice aforethought—had been proven by the prosecution.
The fourth element of participation, which required the prosecution to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had directly participated in the killings by placing him at the scene of the crime or otherwise indirectly facilitating the crime, was not proven.
The prosecution’s charge and caution statement, which claimed Kalungi had admitted to taking part in the killings, were rejected by the judge.
She said that because the statement was written in English and the accused person spoke and understood Luganda, the court could not rely on it.
After the court cleared Mwebe of all charges in 2022, and Kateregga in Namungoona, Kampala by security agents, only one suspect, Kalungi was remaining.
Kirumira was a maverick officer and is remembered for always speaking against the rot in the police leadership.