Richard Arinaitwe (often spelled Alinaitwe) is one of Uganda’s most infamous criminal figures, widely publicised as the country’s first modern “serial killer,” though officially convicted of a single high-profile murder.
In July 1998, Arinaitwe—then a 25-year-old law student at Makerere University—brutally stabbed Cecilia Maria Goetz, an American volunteer, over 30 times in Room 321 at Hotel Equatoria (now Equatorial Shopping Mall).
Goetz was in Uganda to monitor the utilization of HIV/AIDS funds. After evading arrest for three months, Arinaitwe was captured in a ceiling in Kololo, where police recovered two pistols and the murder knife.
In December 2003, High Court Judge Kagaba Rwamisazi sentenced him to death. Following a landmark 2009 Supreme Court ruling regarding death row delays, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
In August 2019, the Court of Appeal quashed his life sentence and replaced it with a fixed 30-year term.
Deducting his 5 years and 3 months spent on remand, the final sentence was set to 24 years and 9 months counted from his December 18, 2003 conviction date.
He is projected for release around December 2027 Arinaitwe has a history of violent outbursts during legal proceedings.
In 1998, he attempted to strangle Buganda Road Chief Magistrate (now High Court Judge) Elizabeth Jane Alividza in her chambers.
Later, during a 2019 court health break, he assaulted a Uganda Radio Network journalist who was taking his photograph.
