After dating online for some time, 23-year-old Latifah Wotali visited her boyfriend at Gganda Jembe 1 Zone, Wakiso Sub-county in Wakiso District, on April 17, 2024. ILLUSTRATIONS/CHRISOGON ATUKWASIZE.
The Criminal Division of the High Court in Kampala has sentenced a 16-year-old boy to a maximum of three years in jail without appeal of the sentence of murder. The boy, whose name has been withheld because he was underage at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend, whom he had met online. But the tragic case of an online dating gone wrong on a first date attracted only a light sentence because the maximum punishment for a child offender is three years in jail.
Justice Margaret Mutonyi, who delivered the sentence on April 16, said the juvenile didn’t waste the court’s time as he pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend on their first date at his home. Nonetheless, she ruled: “This case falling under the category of the rarest of the rare, the court is also agreeing with the prosecution that he deserves the maximum the law provides for juvenile offenders despite his plea of guilty.”
Justice Mutonyi also warned: “The current juvenile justice system, from the perspective of victims and the public, does not dispense sufficiently tough sanctions to serve as a deterrent and provide accountability to victims of crime and society.”
How it happened
Court documents show that after dating online for some time, 23-year-old Latifah Wotali visited her boyfriend at Gganda Jembe 1 Zone, Wakiso Sub-county in Wakiso District, on April 17, 2024. She got the 16-year-old boyfriend alone at home. Once she had settled in, the boyfriend raised the volume of the music playing as he headed for a spray from his mother's bedroom.
He doused her face with the spray, impairing her sight. He then grabbed a hammer and hit Wotali on the head. He also cut her with a panga and dragged her body outside, placing it near a dog house. “He cleaned the house of blood, burnt his blood-stained clothes, dumped them, took a shower, and changed clothes.
Once she settled in, the boyfriend raised the volume of the music playing as he headed for a spray from his mother’s bedroom. He doused her face with the spray, impairing her sight.
He also threw the lady's identity card, shoes, phone, two pangas, and a hammer in a pit-latrine,” the court records show. “He then sat in the sitting room like nothing had happened. His brother came in and discovered the body near the dog kennel. The juvenile admitted he had killed Wotali. The mother was informed by the brother, and she called the police.
He escaped but was later arrested at his sister’s place,” the court records add. The 16-year-old said he killed Wotali after a quarrel, but further questioning revealed he was also using drugs. But the court records ruled out any suspicion of sexual assault after medical tests proved otherwise. When the matter came up before Justice Margaret Mutonyi of the Criminal Division of the High Court in Kampala on April 16, 2025, the juvenile didn’t waste the court’s time as he pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend, whom he met online.
The sentence
Given the shocking acts, Justice Mutonyi handed the juvenile the maximum punishment of three years, although she subtracted the period he had spent on remand. “Having been found responsible for the murder on his plea of guilty and admission of facts, the juvenile offender is advised that he has no right of appeal against the finding of guilty, but he has a right of appeal against the legality and severity of the disposition order within 14 days from today,” ruled Justice Mutonyi. “He is, therefore, ordered to serve a custodial sentence of three years less the period spent on remand, which is 11 months and seven days, leaving him with two years and 23 days.
When he attains the age of 18, he should be transferred to an adult facility to complete his remaining part of his sentence,” she added. Justice Mutonyi said the gravity of the offence that involved taking a life in the most gruesome manner deserved a custodial detention to serve as a semblance of justice to the victims of crime and deter the offender from reoffending.
Observations
The judge said, given the growing number of juvenile offenders in violent and serious crimes, the stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including those specifically involved with youth, such as the Gender and Justice ministries, should revisit the punitive orders for juvenile offenders who use extreme violence and deadly weapons. “The juvenile justice system must have deliberate programmes to focus its efforts and resources on this group of juvenile delinquents with a view of having a wide range of effective delinquency prevention and intervention strategies,” Justice Mutonyi observed. Justice Mutonyi observed that Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Centre cannot accommodate juvenile offenders involved in violent crime, as it has no security systems, like a wall fence, that can prevent the juvenile offenders from escaping.
He then grabbed a hammer and hit Wotali on the head. He also cut her with a
panga and dragged her body outside, placing it near a dog house.
“This court has observed an increase in violent and serious criminal behaviour involving juvenile offenders, especially those between 14 and 17 years, yet the law treats them the same way as a 12-year-old who may just be exhibiting childish behaviour,” she said. “The same law treats the child involved in self-adventure and discovery, especially in sexual offences where victims range from babies to young girls below 14 years, yet they exhibit very clear premeditation and understanding that what they are doing is wrong,” she added.
Concerns over online dating
Justice Mutonyi said this case presents safety concerns over online dating because the deceased was murdered in cold blood in the most gruesome manner on their first physical date at the home of the juvenile. She cautioned those involved in online dating to take precautionary measures, especially on their first physical dates, as many are murdered in cold blood. “I believe the deceased had not done any research about the offender because she would have discovered that he was just a young boy of 16 years old then.
Had she also taken the precautionary measure of meeting at a public place for the first date, accompanied by a family member or friend, her life could have been saved?” Justice Mutonyi observed. “It’s important to tell a friend and a family member about the person, details of the person, including identification documents, and the place of meeting.
The deceased in this case met a ferocious young boy who hit her with a hammer and savagely cut her with a panga for no cogent reason, because they had not met before, and there was no justification for the brutal attack. As many people try to engage in online dating, they need to know that many have met their death on the very first date.”
