Francis Onebe, a senior accountant accused of killing his wife and disposing of her body in a septic tank at their Muyenga marital home, has been denied bail by the High Court of Kampala.
Judge Micheal Elubu stated in a decision read for him by the High Court Registrar Didas Muhumuza that Onebe did not need bail at this time and that the matter should be moved along instead.
According to him, the trial would start in April 2023.
Onebe, 63, is accused of killing Mary Immaculate Aiso Onebe and disposing of her body in a septic tank at their marital house in Muyonyo, Makindye Division, Kampala, in 2021.
The prosecution asserts that Asio vanished on January 6, 2021. Onebe opened a case of possible kidnapping at the Kabalagala police station as a consequence.
On September 7, 2021, nine months after Asio’s death, when detectives discovered his body rotting in the household septic tank, they arrested Onebe for murder.
He requested bail on the grounds that he needed to travel to Nairobi and London for treatment for high blood pressure and chronic prostatitis.
Onebe’s application was denied in January 2022 by Justice Paul Gadenya, who questioned Onebe’s integrity for having previously traveled to Kenya for treatment without informing the police.
The judge also observed that individuals facing the death penalty have the propensity to run away when out on bail a concern for what would happen if they are found guilty of the crime they are accused of committing.
The prosecution claimed that when Onebe’s wife passed away, he was put on a watch list and told not to leave Kampala without the investigators’ consent.
But, according to the evidence presented in court, Onebe disobeyed the rules and was apprehended on September 6, 2021, covertly leaving Uganda for London via Nairobi on the pretext of having a medical emergency.
He was then taken into custody. Onebe has been again remanded to Kitalya prison while he awaits his case’s trial by Justice Elubu.
Onebe and Bonny Oriekot, a private security guard from the Pentagon Security Corporation, were charged together.
