Uganda v Banduni (Criminal Case No. 0030 of 2017)

Observed later treatment

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

The court accepted a plea bargain for murder committed during a mob attack on a person suspected of witchcraft. The accused was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, reflecting his guilty plea, first offender status, minimal participation, remorse, and one year already served on remand, balanced against the gravity of premeditated mob killing.

Outcome

Accused convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment

Facts

On 13 August 2016, a meeting was organised at Ogua Trading Centre to discuss witchcraft allegations against the deceased Aliku Remijo and his family. On 15 August 2016 at approximately 6:00 pm, the accused and a mob attacked the deceased's home, burnt several houses, proceeded to his shop, and beat him to death. Post-mortem examination revealed severe head injury with blunt force trauma. The accused was arrested and examined, found to be of sound mental status and approximately 40 years old. He had been on remand for one year and four months at the time of sentencing.

Issues

1. Whether the proposed plea bargain sentence of ten years' imprisonment was appropriate for murder committed during mob violence.

Orders

• Accused convicted of murder on his own plea of guilty.
• Accused sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, to be served starting 10th January 2018.
• Sentence to run from the date of judgment.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (2)

• Penal Code Act s.188
• Penal Code Act s.189

Cases cited (6)

• Bukenya v Uganda (Court of Appeal Criminal Appeal No. 51 of 2007)
• Sebuliba Siraji v Uganda (Court of Appeal Criminal Appeal No. 319 of 2009)
• Uganda v Businge Kugonza (High Court Criminal Session Case No. 162 of 2012)
• Uganda v Ocitti Alex and another (High Court Criminal Sessions Case No. 0428 of 2014)
• Uganda v Mutebi Muhamed and another (High Court Criminal Sessions Case No. 038 of 2011)
• Tom Sazi Sande alias Hussein Saddam v Uganda (Court of Appeal Criminal Appeal No. 127 of 2009)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Uganda v Okabo and 2 Others (Criminal Case 30 of 2017)

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.