Nyarugenge Intermediate Court on Thursday sentenced to life in prison a man accused of killing his wife in October last year and burying her in their family home backyard in Remera Sector, Gasabo District.

 

During a hearing earlier this month, Alfred Karegeya pleaded guilty to murdering his wife, Marie Rose Mukeshimana, in the night of October 13, 2017 saying that 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 the home backyard before he went to the police to report that she was missing. He claimed that he suspected she had have gone to Kenya.

 

He planted cabbages on the tomb.

 

Reading the verdict, the presiding judge sentenced Karegeya to life in jail and ordered him to pay a total of Rwf7,075,900 in reparations to the family of the deceased.

 

The family of the deceased, represented by her mother, Philomène Kajemundimwe, had demanded for reparations to the tune of Rwf20 million.

 

During the session that was held at the scene of the crime in Nyabisindu Cell of Remera Sector in Gasabo District, where the case was also tried, hundreds of his neighbours turned up to witness the ruling.

 

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

 

Prosecution had, during the trial, maintained that the accused had premeditated this act of cruelty for long and cast doubt on claims of an abusive marriage saying Karegeya never filed any compliant with police.

 

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