I don’t owe Kato Kajubi – Buteera
Kato Kajubi who is serving a jail term for murder. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA
What you need to know:
- Family of the convict alleges the judge pinned Kajubi to escape payment of a debt on land bought from him.
KAMPALA.
Court of Appeal judge Richard Buteera has said he does not owe any money to jailed businessman Godfrey Kato Kajubi as it is alleged by his family.
The former director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) while responding to a media report quoting the family of the murder convict petitioning Chief Justice Katureebe to reinvestigate his conviction.
Mr Kajubi is serving a life imprisonment in Luzira Maximum Security Prison after he was convicted for murder of 12-year-old Joseph Kasirye in October 2008.
Kajubi’s family, according to the media, argued that the judge’s action of “letting the actual murderers” walk away scot free and convict Kajubi was intended for him to escape the burden of a huge debt remaining following a property transaction between the two.
In an August 8, 2016 letter to Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, Justice Buteera admitted purchasing a property in Kisugu, Muyenga in Kampala in 2007 from Mr Kajubi but clarified that “our contract ended with the full payment of what was owing to him.”
“The sale agreement was drafted by his lawyer then, Mr Micheal Mugabi. My bankers extended to me funds that I used for full payment of the purchase price,” Justice Buteera wrote, adding: “I had never met him before that transaction… He has never asked for any money from me thereafter. The first mention of me owing him any money is from the fabricated story.”
Justice Buteera stressed that Mr Kajubi was properly charged and tried in the High Court in accordance with the law after proper evidence was adduced. He said the conviction and sentence have since been confirmed by the Court of Appeal but Mr Kajubi appealed to the Supreme Court and the matter is still pending.
Justice Buteera said although as DPP, he was responsible for decisions of the directorate, the decision to have Kajubi prosecuted was on the basis of the evidence available on the police file. “It had nothing at all to do with the concluded land transaction I had had with Mr Kato Kajubi,” said the judge, adding “I will handle the defamation matter separately.”
