Mathew Kirabo’s family pays shs 150m to avoid serving jail term

Family members of Mathew Kirabo on Wednesday paid out shs 150 million to avoid facing arrest.

Mathew Kirabo is accused of masterminding the murder of his then girlfriend, Desire Mirembe in 2015. He has however missed missed three court sessions in a row.

Last week, Judge Henry Kaweesa of the Mukono High Court tasked the sureties, to present the accused or face jail, and pay shs 50 million each, which is the fee that Kirabo was bailed out at in 2016.

On Wednesday 17, 2021, the accused did not turn up again, and government lawyer Happiness Ainebyoona prayed court to arrest the sureties since they might also disappear.

The sureties, who include Kirabo’s mother Imelda Wabulengo however insisted they do not know where Kirabo is.

The three sureties, who are also family members of the accused distanced themselves from the accusations that they aided Kirabo’s escape.

Court tasked the three of them to pay the shs 50 million each, or be held until Kirabo is found.

The family paid out a total of shs 150 million to government.

Court again tasked them to present Kirabo not later November 29, 2021.

Mirembe, a then Makerere University student disappeared and her body was recovered from a sugarcane plantation in Lugazi, Buikwe district, on July 7, 2015.

Her suspected killer, Mathew Kirabo confessed to the gruesome act and was charged in the Jinja Magistrates Court with murder before being remanded. He was later granted bail on November 24, 2016 and has been out of prison since.

The case was later moved to Mukono on the instructions of the then Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine after the state complained that the crime had been committed within the Mukono jurisdiction.

In 2017, the Mukono High Court said that it did not have money to start hearing the case.

In May 2021, court in Mukono heard the prime suspect, Mathew Kirabo’s application in which he was seeking return of his passport so that he could travel to the United States of America for further studies.

Kirabo’s lawyer, Isaac Kato told court then that his client needed to travel urgently and could not even make it to court. The suspect was, however, found in his car, a black Harrier SUV just outside court.

The family then mounted pressure on court to dispense justice for their fallen daughter, saying that if a date could be fixed to hear the suspect’s application, then they should also fix a date to hear the main case.

Kirabo only attended two sessions of court before he went awol.