MASAKA —Masaka High Court has sentenced a 40 year -old man to 11 years imprisonment for engaging in mob action.
Prosecution led by Amina Akasa told court presided over by Justice Winfred Nabisinde on Wednesday that Aloysius Kityo, a resident of Mbulire Village in Bigasa Sub County in Bukomansimbi District, and two others that are still at large, beaten John Sibo and Peter Masimu to death during a mob attack.
Akasa said that the convict and his accomplices pounced on the duo on June 13, 2018, at Mbulire Village, Bigasa Sub County in Bukomansimbi and beat them to death, accusing them of stealing a bicycle.
She said that Kityo was arrested from the crime scene after he and his colleagues had taken away the life of suspected thieves. The presiding Judge Nabisinde condemned mob action, saying that this kind of senseless killings should stop, adding that people should always report cases of theft to police instead of taking the law into their hands.
In March, police expressed worry over rampant murders by mob action where 42 people were lynched in seven weeks.
A countrywide report by Criminal Investigations Directorate compiled from January 1 to February 20 this year shows a total of 41 cases of mob action were reported to police, with 42 victims lynched and four people survived with grave injuries.
The Uganda Human Rights Commission has also condemned the rising spate of mob justice in the country where dozens of suspected thieves have been killed and their remains burnt. On April 17 this year, locals ganged up against a businessman identified as Okello Onguu in Bala sub-county, Kole District and tortured him to death. They latter set his body ablaze. He had been accused of stealing a cow.
