Hillary Nsambu
1 December 2008
Kampala — TWO brothers who hacked their parents to death are to hang. High Court judge Benjamin Kabiito on Friday convicted Peter Kagiri, 29 and Yuda Kibanda, 26 of the murder.
The prosecutor said the men killed their father, Rafairi Kiwanuka, 70 and mother, Catherine Nassaka, 49, by repeatedly cutting their necks, heads and hands.
They committed the offence at Kikandwa village in Luweero district.
Kabiito dismissed a plea by the men that apart from practicing witchcraft, that killed several people in their village, including their elder brother's child, their parents had provoked them by refusing to take them to school.
Kagiri added that his parents had made him impotent.
The judge said: "The scourge of witchcraft that has permeated the society must be fought before it destroys the modern generation."
"This is certainly one of the most horrific murder cases the court has tried. The two men attacked their parents in their sleep and hacked them to death in cold blood and in the most brutal, primitive and savage manner," Kabiito said.
The judge, who repeatedly referred to the terrifying pictures of the slain parents, also agreed with the State Attorney, Ivan Nkwasibwe, that the men had no justification to kill their parents.
Nkwasibwe, who represented the Director of Public Prosecutions, had asked for the death sentence against the convicts, arguing that witchcraft accusations against the parents were mere speculations.
He said the men had no right to take the law into their hands. Nkwasibwe added that they had other avenues to solve the grievances.
Initially, Kagiri and Kibanda confessed to the Police that they had killed their parents. During the trial, they retracted their confession.
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