Convicted murderer and car dealer Muhammad Ssebufu has been released from prison after being pardoned by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni under the prerogative of mercy.
Ssebufu’s pardon is contained in the President’s communiqué dated February 21, 2026. He had already served 11 years of his 18-year sentence following his conviction in connection with the 2015 murder of businesswoman Betty Donah Katusabe.
In 2019, the High court, presided over by lady justice Flavia Anglin Ssenoga (now retired), sentenced Ssebufu and seven others to prison terms ranging between 20 and 40 years for kidnapping with intent to murder, murder and aggravated robbery.
The court also ordered them to pay Shs 100 million in compensation to Katusabe’s family. Those convicted included Ssebufu, Godfrey Kayiza, Phillip Mirembe, Paul Tasingika, Yoweri Kitayimbwa, Damasseni Ssentongo and Shaban Odutu. Stephen Lwanga was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment as an accessory after the fact.
Court records show that on October 21, 2015, the group kidnapped Katusabe from her home in Bwebajja along Entebbe road and later tortured her to death at Pine Car Bond on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala.
The attack stemmed from a dispute over a Shs 9 million balance on a vehicle Katusabe had purchased from Ssebufu’s bond. The assailants also took her mobile phone and SIM cards valued at Shs 300,000.
All the convicts, except Lwanga, appealed their sentences, arguing that the High court had erred in convicting them without proving the offences beyond reasonable doubt and that the sentences imposed were harsh and excessive.
The director of public prosecutions (DPP), represented by assistant DPP Hope Carolyn Nabaasa, opposed the appeals. In 2021, the Court of Appeal, comprising justices Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Catherine Bamugemereire and Christopher Izama Madrama, reduced Ssebufu’s 40-year sentence to 18 years, one month and nine days.
The court also reduced the sentences of Kayiza to 16 years and 10 months, Mirembe to 16 years and 11 months, and Odutu to 16 years and five months, citing mitigating factors including their status as first-time offenders and the manifest excessiveness of the original sentences.
The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of Tasingika, Kitayimbwa and Ssentongo, ruling that the evidence did not place them at the scene of the murder.
For the remaining convicts, the charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping with intent to murder were set aside due to insufficient evidence, although the murder convictions were upheld. The Shs 100 million compensation award to Katusabe’s family was also maintained.