High Court has sentenced prison warder Moses Anguyo to death after finding him guilty of murdering four people, including two public servants and a one-and-a-half-year-old child.
The sentence was handed down after Anguyo was convicted on four counts of murder.
In addition to the death sentence, the court imposed further penalties on Anguyo for other offences arising from the same case. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on each of two counts of aggravated robbery and three years for threatening violence.
Anguyo was also ordered to compensate the victims Shs35,000 for a pair of trousers and Shs25,000 for an Arsenal jersey that were stolen during the incident.
In delivering the sentence, Lady Justice Jane Okuo Kajuga said the court had considered both the aggravating and mitigating factors surrounding the case before reaching its decision.
However, the judge found that the aggravating circumstances were overwhelmingly more serious than the factors presented in Anguyo’s favour.
Among the factors considered was the fact that four people were killed, including two public servants who were on duty and a child aged one and a half years.
The court also took into account the use of an AK-47 rifle and found that some of the victims were targeted because of their tribal identity.
Justice Kajuga further considered the fact that Anguyo was a trained prison officer who had been entrusted with a firearm but instead abused that trust.
The killings, the court noted, had devastating consequences for the victims’ families, leaving six children orphaned and robbing the country of productive citizens, including architect Ayebare.
Although Anguyo had pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and apologised to the public, the court found that these factors could not outweigh the seriousness of the crimes.
Other mitigating factors included his youth, the finding that the crimes were not premeditated, and his willingness to compensate the victims of the aggravated robberies.
But after weighing all the circumstances, the court concluded that the gravity of the offences and their consequences far outweighed the mitigating factors.
