By Moses Kabareebe, a landlord from Kyebando, has been acquitted by the Supreme Court after serving five years of a 10-year prison sentence for rape, a crime Uganda’s highest court now says he did not commit.
Kabareebe was convicted in 2021 by the High Court and imprisoned in Luzira after being found guilty of raping a maid who worked for one of his tenants. However, a panel of five Supreme Court justices overturned the conviction, ruling that the case was built on contradictory evidence that cast serious doubt on the prosecution’s version of events.
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Key to the court’s decision were major inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony. Initially, the alleged victim claimed she had never engaged in sexual activity with any man apart from Kabareebe. But during cross-examination, she admitted to having a five-month-old child conceived months before the alleged incident. A DNA test later confirmed Kabareebe was not the child’s father.
The justices also questioned the credibility of the complainant, noting that she continued to communicate with Kabareebe even after his arrest. Records revealed that he reportedly asked her not to terminate the pregnancy, which the court said contradicted the expected behaviour of a rape victim.
Further undermining the case, police failed to reconstruct the scene of the alleged crime, and the medical report used in court was admitted without proper procedure. The court noted that this violated Kabareebe’s right to a fair hearing.
Prosecution claims that Kabareebe used a firearm to intimidate the maid were also dismissed. The court found that no weapon was recovered and that Kabareebe had surrendered his licensed gun to military intelligence well before the alleged incident.
The five-judge panel comprising Justices Percy Night Tuhaise, Stephen Musota, Christopher Madrama, Catherine Bamugemereire, and Monica Mugenyi concluded that the inconsistencies in the case, some of which they described as possible “deliberate falsehoods,” rendered the conviction unsafe.
The Supreme Court ordered Kabareebe’s immediate release, unless held on other lawful grounds, and reminded lower courts of the principle that any doubt in a criminal case must be resolved in favour of the accused.
