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Court postpones ruling on Justice Amoko 's burial site
The late Justice Stella Arach Amoko's relatives at the Family Division of the High Court in Makindye (The woman is one of her siblings). Photo by Juliet Kigongo.
What you need to know:
The court presided over by Justice Ketrah Kitariisibwa Katunguka on Friday rescheduled the hearing and ruling of the application to tomorrow (June 24) pending the outcome of a family meeting about where Justice Amoko should be buried
The Family Division of the High Court has deferred its ruling in an application that sought its intervention in resolving where Supreme Court judge, Stella Arach-Amoko's remains will be interred following a family dispute.
The court presided over by Justice Ketrah Kitariisibwa Katunguka on Friday rescheduled the hearing and ruling of the application to tomorrow (June 24) pending the outcome of a family meeting about where Justice Amoko should be buried.
This comes after lawyers presented a proposal by the family of Ambassador James Idule Amoko seeking to have his late wife buried in a neutral place in Arua Catholic Cathedral cemetery.
They also noted that Counsel Marshall Alenyo committed the position to the immediate family from Nebbi which they said would be a win-win spirit to resolve the standoff as it is in the best interest of both parties.
As a result, Justice Katunguka gave both parties more hours for the biological children to consent to the proposal.
The judge also noted that if both parties fail to agree to the proposal she will proceed with hearing of the application in which the biological children and siblings of Justice Amoko who died on June 17 want her buried in Nebbi.
Ambassador James Amoko (red tie), widower of Justice Stella Arach Amoko, leaves the Family Division of the High Court. Photo by Juliet Kigongo
Her husband, now a widower, Ambassador James Idule Amoko, initially wanted the body of Justice Arach-Amoko interred at his home in Adjumani District before coming up with the proposal.
However, the three children that Justice Arach-Amoko had before her marriage to the diplomat, with whom she has no biological child, asked the court to order that their mother be interred on Jukia Hill in Nebbi Town in what they said was her wish.
In their application filed on Thursday (June 22), the trio and two of the deceased’s siblings also wanted the court to terminate the original plan to bury the judge of Uganda’s highest appellate court in Adjumani or, if done, authorise them to exhume the body for reburial in Nebbi.
The applicants are Ms Annet Yossa, Mr Emmanuel Komakech, and Ms Jackie Amoni - children of the deceased - and her brother Godfrey Richo and sister Christine Onyok.
