The Nyarugenge Intermediate Court on Friday started hearing the case involving a man accused of killing his wife in October last year and burying her in the family home backyard; which he admits.

The court session was held at the scene of crime in Nyabisindu Cell of Remera sector in Gasabo district, where Alfred Karegeya appeared before judges.

The hearing was attended by hundreds of neighbours.

Remera sector falls under the jurisdiction of Nyarugunga Primary Court, which is under Nyarugenge Intermediate Court.

Prosecution pin him on the murder of his wife, Marie Rose Mukeshimana .

He is suspected to have killed his first wife, Consolé Kanakuze as she is nowhere to be found.

The presiding judge gave time for the defendant to explain himself on charges against him.

He said that in the night of October 13, 2017 he woke up, got a hammer from the living room which he used to hit his wife, who was deep asleep, to death.

He later buried her in backyard before he went to police to report that his wife had gone missing. He claimed that he suspected she might have gone to Kenya.

Then, he planted cabbages on the tomb.

Karegeya claimed that since 2012, he was in an abusive union with his wife and her family, which did not like him.

He added that he had tried to leave her thrice but they always made up and she would return.

He asked for a lenient sentence.

Prosecution says that the accused had planned this act of cruelty for long and cast doubt on the claims of an abusive marriage saying he never filed any compliant with police.

The prosecution said the accused deserved the maximum sentence of life.

The prosecutor insists that given the fact that the whereabouts of his first wife Kanakuze are unknown, this act reveals that he might have done the same to her as her relatives claim, but the accused denied having been married to her.

Also in court on Friday, witnesses Josiane Nyirandikumana and a one Muhayimana who are neighbours to this estranged family, said that the couple had quarrels over the years.

The family of the deceased represented by her mother, Philomène Kajemundimwe demands for reparations equivalent to over Rwf20 million.

The court is due to pass judgment on March 29.