Matthew Kanyamumyu has been released from Luzira prison on Friday, April 12, 2024, after serving his sentence.

He was convicted after shooting dead Kenneth Akena, a child rights activist working at Action for Community Development (ACODEV) in Kasese district, and sentenced to five years and one month in prison.

However, he was released after serving three years and five months, due to revocation.

Kanyamunyu was sentenced to prison on November 12, 2020, after pleading guilty. He shot Akena at Lugogo in Kampala city after he brushed Kanyamunyu’s car at around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 12, 2016.

The DPP, however, withdrew charges against his Burundian girlfriend, Cynthia Munwangari, who was in his company at the time the offence was committed.

According to Frank Baine, the Uganda Prisons spokesperson, he was supposed to serve until December 11, 2025, but because he served with remission, which is a third of the sentence, his discharge landed on April 12, 2024.

”He was arrested and taken to court, and judgement was made. Both Kanyamunyu and Akena’s family were given the option of appealing, but neither did,” Baine said.

According to the Prisons Act, convicted criminal prisoners sentenced to imprisonment, whether by one sentence or consecutive sentences for a period exceeding one month, may, by industry and good conduct, earn a remission of one-third of the remaining period of their sentence or sentences.

Kanyamunyu, who was facing murder charges alongside his girlfriend Munwangari, went for a traditional ritual known as Mato Oput, an Acholi term that means “to drink a bitter portion made from the leaves of the ‘oput’ tree, a condition stipulated by Akena’s family.

In this ceremony held at the Ker Kwaro Acholi (Acholi Chiefdom), Kanyamunyu reportedly admitted to killing the deceased and was asked to pay ten cows and three goats by the elders in Acholi.