Suspects in the trial of the fire that razed a boys’ dormitory at St. Bernard’s Mmanya Secondary School in Kyotera District have accused police detectives of mishandling investigations, leading to their false arrest and prosecution.
Edison Nio, a former Senior Four student, and Alex Mugarura, a chapati vendor who operated a kiosk near the school at Mmanya Trading Centre, made the accusations while submitting their defence before the Masaka High Court, presided over by Victoria Nakintu Katamba.
The suspects are accused of involvement in the fire that gutted the school dormitory and killed 10 students on November 11, 2018.
The court ruled on Monday that the suspects had a case to answer based on evidence presented by the prosecution.
The suspects were asked to present their defence to justify why they should not be held criminally liable for the offences they are charged with.
The suspects, during oral submissions, denied committing or conspiring to commit the offences, describing the prosecution case as malicious and misguided.
Edison Nio told the court that while in detention cells at Mmanya Police Post, he was pressured to implicate other suspects in exchange for his freedom, and when he declined, detectives charged him with the offences.
He argued that the investigators were determined to implicate him despite his attempts to explain his side of the story, which they never wanted to listen to during interrogations.
He told court that he had earlier been suspended from school together with other Senior Four candidates after they were accused of maliciously breaking a window shutter.
He says although evidence later emerged exonerating them after the culprits confessed, the school’s deputy head teacher maintained the suspension until they sat their Senior Four final examinations.
“All the attempts to tell my side of the story and point to possible leads surrounding the dormitory fire to police were unsuccessful because the investigators were more interested in obtaining a confession from us,” he testified.
He also told the court that he equally lost fellow students and valuable study materials in the fire, something he could have prevented had he been part of the plot.
On the other hand, the suspect questions the reliability of some of the exhibits police allegedly recovered from the crime scene.
He argued that detectives randomly picked items found outside the dormitory. He cited students’ clothes that he claimed had been washed the previous day.
Mugarura, the second accused, also questioned why police deliberately ignored the other possible clues to the fire incident, including underlying management conflicts at the school following the contentious appointment of a new head teacher.
Mugarura further challenged the prosecution’s evidence concerning clothes that police allegedly recovered hidden under his bed mattress.
He described such evidence as false, arguing he used to sleep on a mattress placed directly on the bare floor.
According to the suspect, the clothes couldn’t have been hidden underneath a non-existent bed.
The suspects allege that the investigations were conducted in a hurry and were flawed, thereby leading to the arrest of the wrong suspects.
The duo asked the court to consider the inconsistencies in the police investigations and dismiss the charges against them.
Sam Ssekyewa, the lawyer representing the suspects, said the defence had earlier highlighted several inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, which he argues are substantive enough to exonerate his clients.
The court has set September 8 as the date for summing up the trial, during which the judge will review and consider the opinions of the assessors before delivering the final judgment-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
