Three remanded over murder of Masindi DHO
Kosia told the court that between the nights of January 6 and 7, 2024, the trio unlawfully murdered Dr. Jino Abiriga, contrary to sections 188 and 189 of the penal code act.
By Our Reporter
Masindi: Three prime suspects in connection with the murder of the former acting Masindi district health officer, Dr. Jino Abiriga, have been remanded to Hoima government prisons.
Betty Cherotich, 31, (late Dr. Abiriga’s wife), Namureng Joshua, 36, a builder of Tarobya Village in Bukwo district, and Kipsang Martin, 31, a carpenter of Roruk Village also in Bukwo district, appeared before the Masindi magistrate court on Tuesday.
The Masindi Chief Magistrate, Kosia Kasibayo, remanded the trio to Hoima government prisons on allegations of murder.
Kosia told the court that between the nights of January 6 and 7, 2024, the trio unlawfully murdered Dr. Jino Abiriga, contrary to sections 188 and 189 of the penal code act.
The prosecution, led by Assistant Director at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Florence Owinji Akello, however, prayed for adjournment of the case, saying that police are still investigating the matter.
Kosia didn’t allow the trio to plead to the charges since his court lacks jurisdiction to try capital offenses and remanded them to Hoima government prisons until January 30th, 2024, for the mention of their case.
Background
On Sunday, January 7, 2024, the lifeless body of former acting Masindi District Health Officer (DHO), Dr. Jino Abiriga, was discovered a few meters from his home in Kijura North Cell, Central Division, Masindi Municipality.
Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, noted that the facts gathered indicate that the couple started staying together as husband and wife in 2019, but it was established that the plot to murder Dr. Jino Abiriga began after his wife, Cherotich Betty, learned about a second relationship her husband had with another woman identified as Atuhura Suzan in Masindi.
He noted that Cherotich Betty first hatched a plot to kill Atuhura Suzan, but all the attempts failed, and she hired Kipsang Martin at a cost of two million and five hundred shillings to Atuhura.
“On the 11th of December 2023, Cherotic Betty hired a contract killer, Kipsang Martin, at a cost of 2.5 million Ugandan shillings to eliminate Atuhura Susan. One week later, on the 18th of December, she sent 500,000 to Kipsang Martin to come and target Atuhura Susan for elimination. However, this plot failed when the intended victim did not appear at the expected location,” he explained.
Enanga noted that after the failed attempt to murder Atuhura Suzan, Betty Cherotich shifted and plotted the murder of her husband, whom she accused of the death of their firstborn, the miscarriage of their twins, and for constantly insulting her as a bad performer sexually.
The police mouthpiece says that Betty Cherotich tasked Kipsang Martin with finding a second person to help her murder her husband, and on December 12, 2023, Kipsang Martin and Namureng Joshua started their plans to kill Dr. Jino Abiriga, which they eventually executed on January 6, 2024.
“On the 6th of January, around midday, they booked a room at Valentine’s Guest House. So during the night, she alerted them that the husband was deep asleep, Enanga said, stressing that “they found the gate open, and she led them into the bedroom. They had two golf sticks. So they found that when the victim was asleep, they hit him on the head with the handhoe stick, dragged the body to the floor, and then they slit the throat of the late doctor,” said Enanga.
The trio then cleaned the crime scene, dressed the deceased in new clothing, and dumped the body 50 meters away, outside the gate.
After the murder, the two male suspects disposed of bloodstained clothes in a pit latrine at Valentine’s guest house, where they had stayed. They left Masindi Municipality on January 7, 2024, at 5:30 a.m. for Bukwo.
All three suspects, including Cherotic, Kipisang, and Namureng , have admitted to their involvement in the murder.
“We reconstructed the crime scenes, recovered several exhibits, including the shoes of the deceased with the suspect, the clothes of the suspects, which they had on that day of the murder, and submitted samples for forensic analysis, which we recovered from Bulyasojo cell. We retrieved the bag from the latrine at Valentine’s Guest House. It had a pillow cover, a moping rug, a work ID for the deceased, and several other bloodstained clothes,” Enanga said.
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