ANALYSIS: Kanyamunyu murder case

Different versions

But the baiting of the media started with painting of different case scenarios. In one scenario, Kanyamunyu is depicted cruising in a Toyota Prado SUV driven by his female companion Munwangari. It is a leisurely evening cruise after a long lunch at a top city restaurant in the plush Kololo neighbourhood. But it soon turns into a nasty evening spent crisscrossing the city with a bullet wounded and dying man, Akena, in the car before ending in a police jail cell.

Versions of how the events leading to this unveiled are scanty. The Independent has learnt some of the snippets seen in newspapers are concoctions of some of the people involved in trying to influence public perceptions. Some of the information is titillating decoys by the police; some are concoctions by lawyers, while the rest could well be yellow journalism.

In Kanyamunyu’s version, the victim; Akena, and Munwangari and Kanyamunyu got into an altercation somewhere in the Lugogo Mall area along Jinja Road. Kanyamunyu’s version is that a dark-blue saloon car, being driven at high speed, tried to overtake them and scraped their bumper.

Munwangari swerved off the highway into a murram side road and stopped. The speeding saloon car stopped too and two men stepped out, approached the passenger side of the Kanyamunyu car and yanked the door open. In the ensuing tussle, Akena was shot, and the mysterious second man who was with Akena melted into the night leaving Kanyamunyu with a dying man on his hands.

According to them, Munwangari and Kanyamunyu took the dying man to hospital as `Good Samaritans’. This is the account that was in a statement circulated online by Kanyamunyu’s brother Joseph Kanyamunyu.

In a bid to convince The Independent of the truthfulness of this version, a source took this reporter to the scene and even pointed to black markings on the road, which he said, were markings of the tyres left by the Kanyamunyu car as Munwangari sharply hit the break to avoid a crash.

Although the police are keeping a tight lid on whatever leads they have, it appears the Kanyamunyu version of events has not satisfied them. Sending them on remand to Luzira is one sure sign of this. The other is that the police have since the incident detained two brothers of Kanyamunyu; Joseph Kanyamunyu and Moses Kanyamunyu.

Does this mean the police are more convinced by the `dying declaration’ of Akena?

In this version, narrated by Akena’s brother Paul Nyeko, the Kanyamunyu’s are anything but Good Samaritans.

Nyeko says victim first called him saying that he was going to withdraw money from a bank at Forest Mall in Lugogo. Later he says he received a call from Akena’s other brother, Jordan. Nyeko says Jordan told him Akena had been shot and was admitted to Nakasero Hospital. Nyeko rushed to the hospital where he met a man and woman – later identified as Kanyamunyu and Munwangari – who told him they witnessed his brother being shot and had helped bring him to hospital.

Nyeko says his brother, Akena, was shot at Lugogo Forest Mall. He says the victim narrated the events leading to the shooting to him. Apparently, the victim was reversing when he scraped Kanyamunyu’s car. Nyeko says that when Akena approached Kanyamunyu’s car, possibly to attempt to resolve the situation, the latter lowered his window and shot him.

This version also raises several questions. Lenny Thomas, a forensics expert, who has worked as a Commissioner in the Uganda Police told The Independent that both the accounts of Nyeko and the suspects cannot be true.

“So the question is,” he said, “who stands to benefit if their account is adopted. Obviously the deceased has nothing to gain, nor his family. The suspect has everything to lose.”

With the above common sense assumption, Lenny added, an investigator should then interrogate why the car was moved from one crime scene to the subsequent crime scene where it was found.

“Who drove it?” he asked, “Were the door handles and steering wheel dusted for fingerprints to identify a possible conspirator as the investigation progresses?”

He added that the brother of the deceased says he was shot as he approached the window of the suspect’s car.

“In which case,” Lenny said, “forensic analysis of the window sill of the suspect’s car should yield ample evidence of gunpowder from the fired weapon. Was the suspect’s car subjected to a professional forensic analysis?”

Lenny gave more analysis: The victim’s car shows signs of a parallel coming together of boot cars, at low speed, he said.

Lenny added: “This is consistent with the account given by the victim’s side that the victim was reversing in a parking yard. There is no evidence of a high speed contact that would have been shown by metal crumbling or lights broken. Secondly there is evidence of paint being deposited on the victim’s car as a result of shearing the other car. Has this paint been collected and matched to the suspect’s car?”