The latest about the murder case of Desire Mirembe & the alleged suspect -Mathew Kirabo

Mathew Kirabo alleged to have murdered Desire Mirembe, a Makerere University student in July 2015 appeared before Jinja Chief Magistrates Court on Friday 31st July 2015.

Mathew Kirabo who is a fourth year medical student was charged with rape and murder of Desire Mirembe who was his girlfriend.

Allan Gakyalo, a magistrate at Jinja Court remanded Kirabo to Kirinya prison till 18th August 2015.

Aged 20, Desire Mirembe was a first year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Speech and Language at Makerere University.

But what events could have led to her murder? Caroline Cecilia writes……. 

Like all young love birds, the butterflies had led Mirembe to fall in love with Kirabo. As a first year student majoring in speech and language therapy, she’d fallen in love with Kirabo a student at the medical school. The boyfriend’s passion could have been driven by the parents, one of her parents is a Medical Doctor at Mulago while the other is a lecturer at Uganda Christian University.

Weeks before she was murdered, Mirembe was to have a long chat with her Pastor where she confessed that she’d seen one of her close friends participate in a murder. The close friend in her description was her boyfriend. She was depressed and told the pastor that she was looking for a way out of the relationship without causing harm to herself. She confessed she was being troubled by the fix in which she found herself.

Many friends had begun noticing something off the hook about the relationship of these two. Desire Mirembe was now trying to keep a distance from this over-protective boyfriend who got more suspicious of Mirembe’s next moves. According to friends of Mirembe, Kirabo was so protective of her that he had access to her Facebook passwords, he went through her Whatsapp messages and her phone just to make sure she was not trying to cheat on him or expose anything she might have witnessed him doing.

On 10th Friday, while at Ark Hostel in Katanga, Mirembe’s boyfriend requested that they meet at Café Javas. Mirembe had earlier tried to turn down the request but after much plea, the boyfriend picked her up and together they went to Javas. Her initial Friday plan had been to head over home for a birthday party of one of her relatives that weekend.

The boyfriend claims that his communication with Desire Mirembe had stopped at 9pm. It is the boyfriend who gave the earlier version of Mirembe having told him how she was heading to Jinja for a fellowship. Once in Jinja, messages were sent to her mother and her best friend in Nairobi where Mirembe claimed she was stuck somewhere in Jinja and she was unsure of the place.

However, the new confession from the boyfriend gives a new version to the story. The boyfriend now confesses that he masterminded the murder and executed it himself.  Mirembe’s family had been forced to hire two private investigators, one of them being an experienced investigator from the UK who helped establish all clues pinning down Kirabo, the boyfriend.

The boyfriend now confesses that he indeed drugged Desire Mirembe’s drink at Café Javas, and was the one who sent messages to the family and best friend as a way to disguise his acts. Asked why he’d decided to cut the right nerve of Desire Mirembe’s throat, he confessed that as a medical student he knew that the right nerve was superior and would cause quick death to his victim. It is only Kirabo that knew about Mirembe’s best friend in Nairobi and the mother of Mirembe with whom they used to speak on Viber.

But how Kirabo executed his murder has left many in shock as per his confession. At around 3am in the night Kirabo was seen around Ark Hostel and the askari remembers Kirabo asking him how to load airtime on Airtel (Mirembe’s phone line) and then asking whether the Askari had seen Mirembe around. Later on, he headed off to Church in his car in a way to hide his tracks. The Church Members would be witness to him not having been in Jinja anywhere at that time, part of his confession reads.

What however betrayed him was his failure to account for the time between 9pm and 3am in the night. He could not tell the investigators what he’d been doing at that time. DNA samples from Desire’s body have also linked with samples from his car (the car that was recovered at the scene of the murder with blood spots). He was also to drive to Kitezi where he dumped Mirembe’s phone as a way to kill evidence.  Investigators were also able to get the shoes he was wearing on the day they met with Desire and the foot prints have matched those at the murder scene in Kawolo.

His confession has shocked the family of Desire Mirembe. Asked whether he’d witnessed any murders in the past or participated in any, Kirabo took over 10 minutes pondering over the answer until he accepted in affirmation. Many believe, he could be the serial killer that’s been on rampage around Ugandan Universities.

The Police Authorities have also been shocked that none of his parents has showed interest in the case as other parents would. It’s only the mother who confessed that indeed she’s the one who gave her son the car he used while they drove off with an unconscious Mirembe to Jinja.

However, it also shows a failure in the country’s investigations system. What would have happened had the family not chosen to hire private investigators to follow up the case? What if Desire Mirembe didn’t have any of those influential people to follow up on her murder? Till next time, we hope justice will get served.

Speaking to a few of Kirabo’s classmates at Medical School, they expressed shock at his confession. Many say, that he was known as a regular fellowship guy, charming, though protective of his girlfriend. “We remember him playing the guitar more often and spicing up the environment at medical school with humour and music.”

The person they knew and the person Kirabo is, now seem to be in deep contrast to each other. What next?
That story should say a lot about how we choose to live our lives today. Friends let the elders know who you are dating… take time to really find out who they are. Here is a video to help you understand what I’m talking about. Stay blessed.