Hillary Nsambu
5 October 2008
Kampala — She waited for the mother of the two-year-old boy to go out to buy charcoal nearby. Then she lured the child, Louis Othieno, into her one-room house, adjacent to his parent's on the same house.
With malice aforethought, Veronica Akech then picked a new panga and aimed it at the toddler's right arm, cutting it severely. Determined, she went ahead to sink the machette into the boy's forehead and neck. After the macabre act, she turned herself in to the Police.
The weapon was still embedded in the little boy's neck when the Police came in.
The gruesome murder, according to the prosecutor, took place on November 11, 2005, at Dobbi Zone, Kalerwe, a suburb in the Kawempe Division of Kampala.
Now the 29-year-old woman is to hang for murder, according to the High Court.
Passing the sentence on Friday, Justice Benjamin Kabiito said the evidence was overwhelming and the court did not have the "slightest grain of doubt" that Akech with malice planned to kill the boy.
"This is a tragic and horrific case of murder. The child was only aged two years, who would be regarded as most innocent. It lost its life with no justifiable reason, but savagely murdered."
Kabiito rejected Akech's defence that she cut the child accidentally, when the mother used him as a shield.
She said she had intended to cut the child's mother, who had repeatedly abused her and tormented her about her inability to give birth.
However, the judge said the evidence matched what Akech told the Police when she reported herself after killing the child.
Judge Kabiito said Akech had also told the court she and the mother of the child, Robinah Bahangule, had long-standing differences over various issues.
However, the judge rejected this saying she did not report the misunderstanding to the authority.
When the sentence was pronounced, Akech asked for leniency, saying she had lost her parents and was looking after four younger sisters and brothers. She also said she was living with HIV/AIDS.
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