City business man Matthew Kanyamunyu has been set free from Luzira prison after serving his sentence for shooting dead child rights activist, Kenneth Akena in 2016.
Mr Kanyamunyu was sentenced to five years and one month in prison but he has managed to serve three years and five months due to his good conduct and reformation.
Kanyamunyu’s murder charge was reduced to manslaughter by the Director of Public Prosecution after a plea bargaining session held at the High Court criminal division in Kampala.
He was facing murder charges alongside his girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari before they went for a traditional ritual known as Mato Oput, an Acholi term that means “to drink a bitter portion made from the leaves of the ‘oput’ tree”.
In this ceremony held at the Ker Kwaro Acholi (Acholi Chiefdom) Kanyamunyu reportedly admitted to killing the deceased and was asked to pay ten cows and three goats by the elders in Acholi.
The DPP reduced Kanyamunyu’s murder charge to manslaughter and an amended charge sheet has been presented to Court in which Kanyamunyu has pleaded guilty to the lesser manslaughter.
Justice Stephen Mubiru said that since Kanyamunyu was a first time offender and also took the victim to the hospital, he won’t get life sentence but court accepted his bargain of six years imprisonment.
Mubiru said that court reduced the sentence by 11 months.
The DPP also withdrew murder charges against Kanyamunyu’s girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari.
