A court in the Ugandan capital city Kampala has found a Kenyan man guilty of cyberstalking Uganda’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lady Justice Jane Francis Abodo.
The Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court on Tuesday convicted Oloo Jared Akumu, who hails from Nyangoma Division in Bondo District, Siaya County, after the guilty verdict.
In her ruling, Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu said four witnesses testifying in the case, including Lady Justice Abodo, proved that Akumu sent many threatening emails to Abodo.
The Court heard that between September 15 and November 2, 2021, Akumu severally used his email account [email protected] to harass Abodo on the DPP’s official email address.
The Chief Magistrate, in her judgment, said the DPP started worrying about her life and security when she received the threatening emails and started going through them.
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The court also heard that Akumu had threatened to print out Abodo’s photos and paste them on billboards across East Africa for all, including her appointing authority, President Yoweri Museveni, would know that she was allegedly a corrupt public official.
He is said to have resorted to the email threats after his car was stolen and he claimed the DPP had hidden his case file hence denying him justice due to his legal advice on the case.
Following the conviction, State Attorneys Joan Keko and Jonathan Muwaganya urged the court to issue a deterrent sentence of five years due to an increase in such cases in Uganda.
Keko and Muwaganya argued that Akumu’s email threats had traumatized the DPP and given that he had also confessed to sending them to her immediately he was arrested.
Lady Justice Abodo, on receiving the emails, had reported Akumu and filed a case for offensive communication and cyberstalking at the Central Police Station in Kampala.
The Kenyan was then arrested immediately he arrived in the East African country to follow up on the case on the theft of his vehicle in February 2022.
He is being detained at Luzira Prison and is expected back in court on October 11, 2022 for sentencing following the successful conviction.