Kenneth Akena killer, Kanyamunyu released after serving 3 years in prison

Mathew Kanyamunyu has today been released from prison after serving three years of a 5 year sentence for killing social worker Kenneth Akena in 2016.

Kanyamunyu was in 2020  sentenced to 5 years and one month in jail for manslaughter but he has served three years and 5 months upon remission.

Kanyamunyu’s murder charge was reduced to manslaughter by the Director of Public Prosecution after plea bargaining.

“Therefore Kanyamunyu has accepted before court that on the 12th November 2016 at Kampala Jinja Highway he unlawfully caused the death of Kenneth Akena. On the fateful day, Kanyamunyu and Akena got involved in a motor accident which resulted into a scuffle and Kanyamunyu shot Akena in the chest,” his lawyer Peter Kabatsi said then.

Justice Stephen Mubiru ruled that since Kanyamunyu was a first time offender and also took the victim to the hospital, he won’t get life sentence but court has accepted his bargain of six years imprisonment. Mubiru says that court has reduced the sentence by 11 months, meaning he was to serve 5 years.

Kanyamunyu in 2020 went for a traditional ritual known as Mato Oput prior to the court hearing.

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.