Mathew Kirabo found guilty in murder of Desire Mirembe

Judge Henry Kaweesa of the Mukono High Court has found Mathew Kirabo guilty of the 2015 murder of his then girlfriend, Desire Mirembe.

Kirabo has been unanimously convicted of first-degree murder. Judge Kaweesa said that the sentence will be made after Kirabo’s arrest.

The judge relied on the advice from court assessors who said in their report, that all the evidence in place showed that the accused had masterminded the murder of Desire Mirembe.

Emmanuel Musoke, who is the father to Kirabo’s victim said that he is excited and happy with the ruling.

Musoke was however quick to show disappointment in what he called the laziness of judiciary and police which did not arrest Mathew basing on the 15 witness that pinned him.

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 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 had 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.

This story is being updated