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{UAH} Won’t Kanyamunyu’s Mato Oput plea set a precedent for Impunity?

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BY ALIKER P'OCITTI ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

In the last three days, I have been wondering in my reflections whether Akena Kenneth Watmon's spirit would Rest In Peace in a Mato Oput Justice process requested by Kanyamunyu seeking forgiveness.
A forgiveness he asked for, for scratching his car that he was never granted as he begged for his life.
This reflections were inspired by the recent visit of Mathew Kanyamunyu's family seeking the intervention of Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) and the Acholi Cultural Institution to broker a reconciliation agreement between them and Akena's family to find closure to the case.
Dr John Baptist Odama, the Gulu Arch Bishop backed by Rwot David Onen Acana II, the Paramount Chief of Acholi helped bring Akena's family to negotiations.
What does it mean to receive a request for forgiveness from a universally celebrated peace icon and the Paramount Chief of Acholi who carry their global influence to the compound of a simple humble grieving family?
As Catholics and Acholi what would a rejection mean to the question of respect to religious and cultural leaders? Is this decent request for forgiveness in the interest of Akena's grieving parents or of the Acholi people they lead?
In my reflection, I remembered one rainy evening in 2008 at former Amigos bar in Gulu on a week end. We were having a drink and with Akena sharing humorous jokes in his high pitched voice punctuated by his trademark call out: Jal We Jal We Winy Kong literally meaning buddy buddy listen .
Keno,as we favouritely loved to call him excused himself; on return from the conviniences, he called out again: Jal We Jal We, Nyeri tye kaburu nyako ni tek tek me myel kun nyako ni pe mire literally meaning,"this guy is just bullying this girl for a dance yet she doesn't want."
When asked which girl? He responded, "the girl in white. I will go and stop him.This is not fair" said Keno.
The guy he intended to stop was muscular and looked like one who spent the better half of his leisure time in a gym. To avoid the prospects of a brawl,we informed the bouncer who took care of the situation.
Since then we referred to each other as "the girl in white" whenever we needed to galvanize courage despite our physical weakness to standup to something.
Big Keno,who was lanky and skinny with a penchant for strict ironing and tucking in his shirt; he had never recorded any publicly known success records with brawls just like I (a publicly certified coward) but he could not stand impunity.
While Big Ken would vouch for Mato Oput,he would not stand impunity. Historically culture has united Acholi but why does it bisect us today on the death of Akena?When it smells,you can tell it's an aroma or a stink.
Tycoon Kanyamunyu, 39, the Executive Director of Quantum Express Logistics was alleged to have shot Akena, 33, on November 13, 2016 in the stomach over a car scratch and he died a day after at Norvik Hospital, along Bombo road.
He was charged with murder alongside his brother Joseph Kanyamunyu, 40, and Cynthia Munwangari, 26.
The accused were charged with murder contrary to section 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act. According to the Act, any person convicted of murder faces a death penalty.
Kanyamunyu denied being responsible after swearing on oath in court and argued he only acted as a good Samaritan.
However, John Paul Nyeko, a relative of the deceased, said his cousin made a dying declaration in which he pinned Kanyamunyu for shooting him in the Forest Mall parking yard.
It is already four years since Akena died. In February 2020, Justice Stephen Mubiru adjourned the trial to the next convenient criminal session in April. Unfortunately, Covid19 set a new normal with the judiciary too.
At the time of halting the trial, prosecution had presented 13 witnesses and was only left with one to close its case, and Kanyamunyu could begin his defense.
In early 2017 during the trial , there was fury when Winnie Byanyima, daughter to Mzee Byanyima, wife to Dr Besigye, and Oxfam Executive Director then , offered to stand surety for the Kanyamunyus. Awe took a tribal tone when Byanyima offered to stand surety for Kanyamunyu. Kanyamunyu is a niece to Byanyima.
Today's silence of Acholi leaders who lead the aggrieved in court to a belligerent cry for mercy in protest for Byanyima's involvement is so loud.What do they know? When did they step back on this case. None of them is known for taking silence as a position to represent their people at the face of impunity. Only time will justify their silence in this precarious Mato Oput process.
Kanyamunyu and his brothers are grandsons of the legendary past chairman of Uganda's oldest political party the Democratic Party (DP), Mzee Boniface Byanyima.
The Byanyima name has been very influential in Ankole and Uganda politics since the 1960s.
President Yoweri Museveni was also partly raised in the Byanyima household.
The people in whose home the President grew up with, like Edith Byanyima and Anthony Byanyima had been thronging the various police detention centres where the suspects were held.
President Museveni, himself visited the family of Akena to condole with the family.
In view of all this facts, the idea of Mato Oput with the intervention of Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) and the Acholi Cultural Institution to broker a reconciliation agreement between Kanyamunyu's family and Akena's family to find closure to the case raises pertinent questions that puts to test Mato Oput and Uganda's Criminal justice processes.
The questions are:
Did you expect the Akena family to reject a 'decent' proposal for reconciliation from Bishop Odama,Acholi Paramount Chief Rwot Acana II with their global influence especially when their request would be in the interest of powers that be?
Will this Mato Oput have an influence on the criminal justice process before court right now? Or it is the beginning of Kanyamunyu's defence to save him from a life sentence in court.
Akena was buried facing the wilderness and not his homestead presumably with a broom; a cultural practice common in Acoli when faced with the murder of an innocent family member when no one pleads guilty to the crime. Elders invoked the spirits of Akena to go find his murderer. Will the elders revoke their curses? Will Akena be reburied after the Mato Oput?
Despite the many flows with the current Mato Oput that we experience today; if Mato Oput were to reconcile clan members who were major stakeholders,will this cultural process be agreeable to Akena's maternal family from the Madi community?
On leadership, is it automatic that when one asks for Mato Oput, it is automatically granted because it has been asked? Will Rwot Acana II and Bishop Odama offer their public influence to plead for reconciliation in a similar death in the future?
Does the silence of leading political personalities involved in this case bother you? Does the political timing of this reconciliation feed into why the focus is Acholi and not the bereaved Ogon clan?
The timing and secretive process of this Kampala project raises the question of whether it is not one other well thought out 2021 campaign project like we have experienced in the past.
Mato Oput and Impunity
One of the greatest arguments against Mato Oput has been its ability to perpetuate impunity.
The etymological meaning of impunity is'lack of punishment" but in international courts, it has increasingly negative connotations,looked upon as 'the general lack of investigation,persecution,arrest prosecution and sentencing of those who are liable for violating protected rights'(Silva 2008:867; World Vision International,2002.)The sceptical reaction of most aggrieved and victims towards restorative justice encounters seem to stem from their fear of impunity that this secretive process by Ker Kwaro Acoli seem to offer a precedent.
According to international case law,factual impunity and legal impunity (active or by omission) comprise amnesties, pardons and different legal figures, thus limiting prosecution as sentencing with respect to isolation of human rights.
In view of this therefore, it has taken Kanyamunyu 4 years and a complete filing of evidence in court to be remorseful and for his family to seek restorative justice and accept responsibility for killing Akena. Is Kanyamunyu really sorry or opening his defence in court by playing to the gallery?
The filling of evidence against his sworn innocence is done and one can have an idea whether they have a good case or not. Is this not a well thought out process to define remorse,plead guilty and secure a liniment sentence; in the face of death penalty? If so, is this not impunity at play to the minds of the bereaved?
In the Mato Oput process,compensation is normally to penalize the perpetrator. This is to curb the act of impunity in the community. Even if the penalty does not equal the offence, it acts as a deterrent. So one is forced to think; does 10 cows and 4 goats serve as a deterrent measure for a tycoon who can afford to hire nationally reputable lawyers like MacDusman Kabega, with a national acclaim for legal excellence to defend a potential death sentence for
killing Akena?
To those who are familiar with the sight of Ker Kal Kwaro (KKK)compound; over the week end it took a new identity from its humble, siren and friendly and accommodating environment to the sight of a corporate event trafficking class and extravagance as seen from the packed sleek cars, seen in a short video clip and photos.
If the exercise is in good faith to restore broken relationship with Ogon clan members; why is the process at Rwot Acana's residents in Gulu and not with the clan to reconcile with? The protocol of elders from Ogon clan should have executed their duties before their people.
Did Ker Kwaro Acoli borrow the concept of distant justice from their support of the prosecution of Dominic Ongwen at The Hague? The people of Ogon clan must be involved in the full process of their traditional justice if they are ever to embrace its outcome of restoring broken relationship.
As I continue to reflect on my life with Akena, I am convinced that if Akena was alive today; he would stand for Mato Oput but stand against impunity. Even when he felt defenseless like he was in defence of the girl in a white dress, he chose to standup against impunity.
I hope history will not find Ker Kwaro Acholi and Gulu Archdiocese accomplices in a well thought out and crafted Kampala political project.
Conclusively, Mato Oput is a respected and reputable traditional justice practice to restore broken relationship. The current practice of a doctored Mato Oput unfortunately may set a precedent for Akena's life to be referred to in the future to promote impunity other than restoring a broken relationship.
I hope Akena's spirit doesn't turn to haunt perpetuators of impunity for not seeking his justice but self aggrandizement.
Rest In Peace Akena
The author is a Gulu based Opinion Leader,Poet and Author.Email: mdaliker@gmail.com

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