By Davis Mugabi

Mukono High Court has sentenced Mathew Kirabo, a suspect in the murder of own girlfriend Desire Mirembe, to 30 years in prison.

Kirabo was arraigned before Mukono High Court on November 21, 2023, and Justice Henry Isabirye Kaweesa sentenced him to 30 Years in prison. Kirabo was charged and convicted of murdering Desire Mirembe on July 10, 2015, who was a medical student at Makerere University and his lover.

Kirabo was first convicted by the same court in absentia on May 30, 2022. His sentence was deferred by the trial judge Justice Henry Kaweesa, till he would be present. While on the run, he was arrested by Interpol in Kenya on September 12, 2023.

Upon arrest, Kirabo was extradited to Uganda and remanded to Luzira Prison pending his sentence. He was returned to court on Tuesday and sentenced to 30 years in prison. 

Kirabo pleaded with Justice Kaweesa to lessen his punishment, and being a first-time-offender, his request was granted. Instead of the death sentence, Kirabo will be in prison for about 29 years, after the one month and seven days he spent there while on remand were deducted.

The convict sympathized with the deceased family and expressed regret for not having been able to send off his girlfriend.

Mathew Kirabo was granted bail in November 2016 and when the hearing of the case resumed in 2021, after six years, the suspect was no where to be seen, prompting the court to order his sureties to pay UGX 150 million for helping him escape.

Desire Mirembe, 19, was murdered on July 10, 2015, by her boyfriend Mathew Kirabo, who dumped her body in a sugarcane plantation in Lugazi-Kawolo, Buikwe district, where it was discovered by police.