In their second court appearance yesterday, Matthew Kanyamunyu (39), his lover Cynthia Munwangari (26) and his elder brother Joseph Kanyamunyu (40) were not their cheerful selves.
The three, accused of murdering Kenneth Akena, looked quite sad, 15 days after they were remanded to Luzira prison for the alleged murder of the child rights activist.
When the prison bus arrived at the Nakawa chief magistrate’s court at 9:45am, Munwangari, clad in a blue jacket and pants, alighted first. On November 22, during her arraignment on murder charges, Munwangari smiled and posed for photos upon arrival at court. But this time round, after stepping out of the Prisons bus, she dashed to the court cells.
Next to step out of the bus, was Joseph, dressed in a blue shirt and black trousers. His hands were cuffed. When he was first arraigned before court, Joseph walked with a bounce in step. But yesterday he dashed straight to the cells. Later Matthew, the principal suspect, alighted, dressed in a blue shirt and blue trousers with a bottle of mineral water. The last time he was at this court, he was lively and calm.
Just like his co-accused, Matthew was camera-shy yesterday and hurried to get to the cells. It has been widely-alleged that Matthew shot Akena, 33, in the stomach after a brawl over a car scratch on November 12. Akena died later at Norvik hospital on November 13, 2016.
As the accused were arriving, Akena’s relatives and friends led by Kitgum municipality MP Beatrice Anywar streamed into the courtroom. Many of them wore black T-shirts with imprints ‘Justice for Akena.’
The accused’s relatives were quick to express their displeasure with the media coverage of the case.
“Why did you take photos of our people when they were laughing?” one woman asked. “We know how powerful the media is but don’t convict our people before they are officially convicted.”
At 10:40am, the accused were ushered into the Nakawa Grade II magistrate Noah Norbert Sajjabi’s court for mention of the case. In court, all suspects wore sad faces.
There were no hugs, no smiles. The suspects sat far from each other. When Sajjabi sat in his court at 10:45am, state attorney Rachael Nabakooza asked that the accused are further remanded because investigations are still ongoing.
Grace Karuhanga, one of the accused’s lawyers, said he had no problem with the prosecution’s request but asked the magistrate to limit the journalists’ access to court.
“They [journalists] are making my clients uncomfortable,” he started amid jeers from court.
“They [journalists] are all over the place. They are even in the witness dock. Some of them have even barked at me that I’m obstructing them,” he said.
The magistrate, however, said he cannot stop journalists from accessing court but he ordered them to get out of the witness dock.
“Court is for everyone but there should be order in court such that justice is served and no one should be in the witness dock,” Sajjabi ruled.
The journalists retreated from the witness dock. After the brief court session, Anywar told journalists that as leaders from Acholi sub-region, they are following the investigation keenly.
“We are in touch with the police and the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and whatever development that comes up, they tell us,” she said. “All we want is that Akena gets justice and he shouldn’t die in vain.”
She also intimated that MPs from Acholi sub-region make unannounced visits to Luzira prison to make sure the suspects are in jail.
“This is a criminal case which sometimes takes a lot of time to be investigated. It can even take a year but we are willing to wait because we want justice to be served,” Anywar said.
The case will come up for mention again on December 20, 2016.
dkiyonga@observer.ug
