Wakilii

Uganda v Baryaijuka Mathias alias Buli (Criminal Case No. 80 of 2014)

High Court · [2017] UGHC 411 · 2017 Conviction Entered AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance criminal trial for murder
Decision
Accused convicted of murder

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Held that the prosecution proved all elements of murder beyond reasonable doubt. The deceased made a dying declaration consistently naming the accused as her attacker. The alibi that the accused was in Kyenjojo was destroyed by prosecution evidence that he had been seen in the village on 1 December 2012 and by his own admission that he left for Kyenjojo on 30 November 2013, not 2012. His disappearance from the village immediately after the attack and failure to attend his grandmother's burial corroborated the dying declaration. Conviction for murder entered.

Outcome

Accused convicted of murder

Facts

On 2 December 2012 at about 11:00pm, the deceased Kakaikuru Efransi raised an alarm that her grandson Baryaijuka Mathias alias Buli had attacked her. Her son PW1 and his wife PW2 ran to her house and found her stabbed in the chest. The deceased consistently told PW1, PW2, and PW3 that the accused had come to her room with a torch, she opened the door for him, they talked, and they disagreed when he lit a cigarette. He then pushed her onto the bed and stabbed her in the chest. The deceased maintained this account on the way to Kisiizi Hospital where she died on 3 December 2012. A short death certificate recorded the cause of death as Cardio Pulmonary Arrest. The accused immediately disappeared from the village and did not attend his grandmother's burial. He resurfaced in 2014 when he was arrested. There was a land dispute between the accused and the deceased. The accused's defence was that he left the village for Kyenjojo on 30 November 2013 to work as a lumber and learned of his grandmother's death only when he returned in 2014.

Issues

  1. Whether the accused murdered the deceased Kakaikuru Efransi on 2 December 2012.
  2. Whether the dying declaration made by the deceased was admissible and sufficiently corroborated.
  3. Whether the prosecution destroyed the accused's alibi defence that he was in Kyenjojo at the time of the attack.

Orders

  • Accused convicted of murder contrary to sections 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act.

Rules and key headnotes

Evidence — Dying Declarations — Admissibility and Corroboration Requirement
A dying declaration is a statement made by a person who believes he is about to die in reference to the manner in which he received the injuries of which he is dying and in reference to the person who inflicted such injuries. Evidence of a dying declaration per se cannot form a basis for conviction unless it is satisfactorily corroborated with other independent evidence.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Murder — Proof of Malice Aforethought
Malice aforethought is the intention to bring about the death of a human being and can be inferred from circumstantial evidence. Factors normally considered are the nature of the weapon used, the part or parts of the body attacked, consistency of the attacks on the deceased, and the conduct of the attacker before or after the attack.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Defence of Alibi — Destruction by Prosecution Evidence
An accused is under no duty to justify his alibi evidence, but the prosecution carries the burden to adduce substantial evidence to destroy the alibi by placing the accused at the scene of crime. Where the accused's own testimony contains an internal contradiction that places him in the village at the time of the attack rather than at the location claimed in his alibi, and where prosecution witnesses credibly place him in the village shortly before the attack, and where the accused disappeared immediately after the attack and failed to attend the victim's burial, the alibi is destroyed and the prosecution evidence is corroborated.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Murder — Elements of the Offence
In a murder case, the prosecution is required to prove that there was death of a human being, that the death was unlawful, that it was caused with malice aforethought, and that it was the accused who directly or indirectly participated in causing the death of the deceased. The law presumes every homicide to be unlawful unless it is a death resulting from an accident or one authorized by law.

Legislation cited (3)

Cases cited (1)

  • Uganda v Ochieng John [1992-93] HCB 86

Full judgment

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

Uganda v Baryaijuka Mathias alias Buli (Criminal Case No. 80 of 2014) [2017] UGHC 411 (3 February 2017)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.