By Charles Etukuri
The Uganda Prison Services on Tuesday April 12, 2022 said Mathew Kanyamunyu who sentenced November 2020 for the murder of Kenneth Akena is alive.
Frank Mayanja Baine in a statement said, “false media reports have been making rounds purporting the death of prisoner KTA/MIN-C?1603/20 Kanyamunyu who is in custody at Kitalya Mini Maximum Prison. The general public is informed that the above-mentioned person is alive and serving his sentence. These false stories should be ignored with utmost contempt,” Baine said.
Press reports had indicated that Kanyamunyu passed away while in prison in Kitalya Prison in Wakiso district.
In November 2020 Kanyamunyu was sentenced to five years in Prison for manslaughter after court found him guilty of unintentionally killing social worker Akena in 2016. His murder charge was reduced to manslaughter by the Director of Public Prosecution after a plea bargaining session held at the High Court criminal division in Kampala.
His lawyer Pater Kabatsi said the DPP sanctioned amended charge sheet had been presented to court in which Kanyamunyu has pleaded guilty to the lesser case of manslaughter.
“Therefore Kanyamunyu has accepted before court that on the November 12th 2016 at Kampala Jinja Highway he unlawfully caused the death of Akena. On the fateful day, Kanyamunyu and Akena got involved in a motor accident which resulted into a scuffle and Kanyamunyu shot Akena in the chest,” Kabatsi said.
Justice Stephen Mubiru ruled that since Kanyamunyu was a first time offender and also took the victim to the hospital, court had accepted his bargain of six years’ imprisonment. Mubiru said that court has reduced the sentence by 11 months, meaning he is to serve 5 years.
