A court in Kampala has granted bail to two suspects and denied a third—considered the principle in a murder case that gripped Kampala in November last year.

High Court judge Yasiin Nyanzi turned down the bail application of Mathew Kanyamunyu, who is believed to have shot and killed a community worker Kenneth Watmon Akena, after a minor traffic accident on Saturday November 12, 2016. The court freed his two co-accused, a brother Joseph Kanyamunyu and girlfriend Cynthia Munangwari.

The insignificance of the accident and the resultant death enraged large sections of the public who took to social media other public media forums to express their anger, with commentators viewing the matter as one of impunity driven by well-connected sections of Kampala’s elite against a less privileged section.

Akena, who was reportedly driving a saloon car - Toyota Premio -hailed from Kitgum district in northern Uganda while his alleged killer, Kanyamunyu who is said to have been driving an SUV - Toyota Prado - is from Mbarara district in Western Uganda.

The north, scarred by two decades of a brutal war under the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony and home of Uganda’s former leaders is showcased as the emblem of governmental neglect while Mbarara in western Uganda, the home of the country’s current leaders is projected as the poster child of privilege.

The two brothers are linked to the political elite in Uganda.

Joseph, who was accused of being an accomplice in the murder and hiding the killer gun, according to the prosecution’s case and Munangwari, who was reportedly in the parked car with Mathew at the time of the incident occured, were released on a cash bail of Ush5 million ($1,380) while their sureties were bonded on Ush 50 million ($13,800). The judge said, in granting bail that the level of the culpability of the two was lower. He said that he would give details of why he declined the bail application of Mathew Kanyamunyu on March 30.