KAMPALA — Lydia Draru, who served 14 years in prison for man slaughtering former army commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini has been released, Prison authorities have said.
Media reports indicate Draru was released some months back and she is already going about her business in Kampala.
A Uganda Prisons spokesman Frank Baine on Monday August 9 confirmed her release from the Luzira maximum penantiary.
Baine is quoted to have said that Draru served and completed her 14 year long jail term.
Draru was convicted by the High Court for manslaughter and sentenced her to 14 years in prison.
During sentencing, Justice Monica Mugenyi acquitted Draru of the charge of murder, and instead found her guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
On November 10, 2009 Gen. Kazini was found dead in a pool of blood at Namuwongo.
The case had drawn broad attention and support for the defendant amid a national reckoning with long-held taboos around domestic abuse.
Draru admitted to hitting Gen. Kazini multiple times with an iron bar in self defense, but told court but maintained that she did not intend to kill Kazini, who was at the time her boyfriend.
By the time she was sentenced, Draru had served two years on remand.
There have been many conflicting statements surrounding the death of Gen. Kazini. While court convicted Draru for killing the General, political commentators believe Draru could not have killed the general single handedly.
Gen Kazini was sacked as army chief in 2003 after UN accusations he plundered resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo when leading operations there.
By the time of his death, Maj Gen Kazini had fallen out with the NRM establishment- having been found guilty of corruption the previous year. There were other charges unconnected to the Congolese allegations.
