Godfrey Kato Kajubi was convicted in July 2012 by the High Court of Uganda at Masaka of the murder of Joseph Kasirye, a child from Masaka District, who died on October 27, 2008. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The conviction came at a second trial. At the first, in April 2010, a different High Court judge had acquitted him without calling on him to present a defense, and the Court of Appeal later set that acquittal aside.
The prosecution case was that the killing was a ritual one that Kajubi had procured. Two other people were charged with him at the outset and were discharged before the first trial; they became the principal prosecution witnesses. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence on June 12, 2014, and the Supreme Court did the same on November 12, 2021.
The indictment, filed in the High Court at Masaka as Criminal Session Case No. 16 of 2009, charged Kajubi with murder, contrary to sections 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act. The particulars alleged that he committed the murder on October 27, 2008 in Masaka District. Two co-accused were named with him. Both were discharged before the trial opened, and neither was convicted of any offense.
The trial was heard by a single High Court judge. At the close of the prosecution case the defense submitted that there was no case to answer, under section 73(1) of the Trial on Indictments Act. On April 23, 2010 the court upheld that submission and found Kajubi not guilty. The two former co-accused had testified for the prosecution, and the judge treated them as accomplices whose evidence required corroboration; the ruling ordered Kajubi's release from prison unless he was lawfully held for another offense.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed. The Court of Appeal, sitting as a panel of three justices, held that the two witnesses were not accomplices and that their evidence had adequate corroboration. It set aside the acquittal and ordered a retrial in the High Court before another judge.
The retrial was held at the High Court in Masaka before a different judge as Criminal Session Case No. 28 of 2012. Kajubi was tried alone. The two earlier co-accused again gave evidence for the prosecution. In July 2012 the court found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, finding that the prosecution had produced enough evidence to prove his participation beyond reasonable doubt. Kajubi denied the charge and maintained that he was elsewhere on October 27, 2008.
Kajubi appealed as Criminal Appeal No. 173 of 2012. His amended memorandum of appeal raised thirteen grounds; his counsel pursued four, which argued that the conviction rested on uncorroborated accomplice evidence, that inconsistencies in key evidence had not been resolved, that the evidence and his defense had been poorly weighed, and that a life sentence was harsh, excessive or illegal. A bench of three justices gave judgment on June 12, 2014. It found his alibi to have been fabricated, held that telephone records supported the account of the former co-accused, and rejected the argument on sentence, applying the Supreme Court's reading that a life sentence means imprisonment for the natural life of the convict, subject to remission. Its order was: "This appeal stands dismissed and both the conviction and the sentence of the appellant to life imprisonment are upheld."
Kajubi appealed to the Supreme Court on the same lines: that the two witnesses were accomplices whose evidence was not corroborated, that contradictions had been ignored, that a police statement by one of them had not been considered, and that the sentence was harsh. A hearing listed in July 2018 did not go ahead because the panel was incomplete. In December 2020 a lawyer acting for Kajubi filed a petition in the Constitutional Court naming the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General, arguing that the trial had been unfair and asking that the Supreme Court be stopped from giving judgment. On November 12, 2021 a panel of five justices led by the Chief Justice dismissed his appeal and upheld the life sentence, agreeing that he had played a key role in the killing.
In August 2021 the High Court at Masaka dismissed an application by Kajubi's lawyer seeking his release and a retrial of Kajubi with the two former co-accused, holding that a High Court has no jurisdiction to re-examine a matter the Court of Appeal had decided. In May 2022 Kajubi applied to the Supreme Court to review its own decision and set it aside, arguing that the Director of Public Prosecutions had wrongly retried him alone after the Court of Appeal had ordered a retrial of the three accused.
Murder under sections 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act carries a maximum penalty of death, which is not mandatory. The Court of Appeal in 2014 stated that, following the Supreme Court's decision in Tigo Stephen, a life sentence in Uganda is imprisonment for the natural life of the convict, subject to remission, and not a fixed number of years. A prosecution appeal against an acquittal at the close of the State's case, as occurred here, can result in the Court of Appeal ordering a fresh trial before a different judge.
Kajubi has denied the offense throughout. His alibi was rejected as fabricated by the Court of Appeal. The two former co-accused were never tried, and the first trial judge and the Court of Appeal disagreed over whether they were accomplices. That disagreement is the basis of the later constitutional and review applications.
October 27, 2008: the child dies in Masaka District.
2009: Kajubi is indicted for murder at the High Court at Masaka.
April 23, 2010: the High Court acquits Kajubi on a submission of no case to answer.
After April 2010: the Court of Appeal sets aside the acquittal and orders a retrial before another judge.
July 2012: the High Court at Masaka convicts Kajubi of murder and sentences him to life imprisonment.
June 12, 2014: the Court of Appeal dismisses his appeal.
December 2020: a constitutional petition is filed on his behalf.
August 2021: the High Court at Masaka dismisses an application for his release and a retrial.
November 12, 2021: the Supreme Court dismisses his appeal.
May 2022: he applies to the Supreme Court for a review of its decision.