Trial of murdered Columbia varsity student in final stage

Andrew Gatare

Kampala- The trial of two suspects accused of murdering a Columbia university student in 2015 in Kampala has entered into its final stages.

Andrew Gatare, 19, then a student of electrical engineering at Columbia College in Canada, was killed during his Christmas holidays in Uganda.
Mr Ronald Mutebi and Mr Geoffrey Lubwama, alias Jeff, were later arrested as prime suspects.

The trial has since reached the “final submissions” stage by both the prosecution and defence sides starting February 25 in Kampala before the final judgment is delivered.

An indictment presented to the High Court by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) states that on New Year’s Eve of 2015, the deceased left home in Kololo to watch fireworks at Kampala Serena Hotel.

At about 2am, he left the hotel and crossed to Nile Avenue to get a boda boda back home.

On his way, two men pounced on him before robbing him of his mobile phone and money.

Gatare was later picked by police officers who dropped him at Mulago hospital where he died.

The police conducted investigations which revealed that the said injuries were consistent with application of physical force which were caused by a deadly weapon (a hammer).

The cause of death was due to blunt head trauma.
The indictment also shows that police tracked the alleged killers by using the deceased’s telephone number and the phone’s IMEI number which was later traced to a one Damulira Ssezzi.

The DPP states that on January 13, 2015, through a string of operations, police arrested Damulira who said Mutebi sold to him the phone.

He said Mutebi, who was a resident of Kazo in Central Division in Kawempe, sold to him the phone at Shs60,000 of which he had made a down payment of Shs40,000.

Mutebi was then arrested and upon interrogation, he confessed to have stolen the said phone from the deceased.
Damulira allegedly told police how he shared the money with Lubwama whom police also arrested.

DPP STATEMENT

On January 2, the deceased’s brother, who was staying with [Gatare] at the time of the incident, went to Mulago and saw the body of the deceased and he identified it as being that of his brother,” the DPP’s indictment reads in part. “The police also visited Mulago hospital mortuary and photographed the deceased’s body. It had incision stitch marks and the face was swollen on the jaw area on the right hand side,” the statement adds.