Kanyamunyu trial: Akena was shot at Game not Kyadondo, brother tells court

The trial of Kampala businessman Matthew Kanyamunyu and his Burundian girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari resumed Tuesday in Kampala as a sixth witness took to the stand to testify that the late Kenneth Akena told him a wrong scene of the crime in his dying declaration.

The sixth witness, John Paul Nyeko, a cousin to the late Kenneth Akena, revealed to the court that Akena told him he had been shot after he scratched a car as he tried to park at Game stores in Lugogo.

“He said that they shot me from Game but not Kyadondo. He said that I was parking and, in the process, I brushed his car, which was parked, and when I went to them to apologize, the man pulled a pistol and shot me in the stomach.” Nyeko said.

“Game not Lugogo”, he told high court judge Steven Mubiru.

The witness had appeared before the criminal division of the High court to testify in a case in which businessman Kanyamunyu, his Burundian girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari and his brother Joseph Kanyamunyu are charged with the murder of Akena in November 2016.

Nyeko said the two (Akena and Nyeko) were meant to meet at Lugogo Rugby Grounds with another relative but he failed to show up until much later they received a call from Nakasero hospital informing them that Akena had been shot.

He said when they reached the hospital Matthew Kanyamunyu received them and introduced himself to them.

He sympathized with us and said he was around when his brother was shot at.

Nyeko said after doctors at Nakasero operated on Akena, they told them that ICU was full and he was referred to Norvik hospital from where he passed on.

Previously a witness told the court presided over by Justice Steven Mubiru that when they did the postmortem examination on Akena’s body, they found – abandoned in the abdominal cavity – two surgical instruments and seven towels all soaked in blood. The items were left Inside Akena’s abdomen while he was still alive before stitching him up and transferring him to Norvik.

Some analysts argue investigations should be opened to probe negligence on the part of doctors and the hospital which operated on the deceased.

The prosecution, however, alleges that Kanyamunyu was posing as a good Samaritan in taking Akena to hospital.

Police investigators have since identified Jinja Road near Malik Car Bond as the actual scene of the crime, and a place Kanyamunyu said in his statement he picked Akena to take him to three hospitals on an uneventful night in efforts to save the child activist’s life.

Investigators combed Game Shopping mall Parking Yard for a scene of the crime and got nothing until they reached Kyadondo Rugby Grounds along Jinja Road which is mentioned in the indictment.