Prime
State insists widow killed Kasiwukira
What you need to know:
- Kasiwukira was killed on October 17, 2014 as he was jogging in the morning in the neighbourhood of Muyenga, a Kampala suburb. He was hit by a car, which sped away after the incident.
- The police referred to it as an “intentional run-over”. About two months later, the three main suspects, Ms Nabikolo, Nakungu and Jaden were charged with the murder.
KAMPALA. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) yesterday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the acquittal of Ms Sarah Nabikolo, the widow of slain businessman Eriya Ssebunya Bugembe, alias Kasiwukira, and convict her for murder.
Assistant DPP Mr Simon Peter Semalemba said in the appeal that Ms Nabikolo with her cousin Sandra Nakungu and Ashraf Jaden, a police constable who were convicted for the murder, formed a common intention to kill Kasiwukira because he had gotten a second wife and there was already tension in their marriage.
“It is the appellant’s [prosecution] submission that evidence of the prosecution witness 12 clearly shows that there was a strained relationship between the respondent [Ms Nabikolo] and the deceased at the time of his death. One therefore wonders why the respondent was very bitter after finding out that she was being followed if at all the relationship was not strained,” Mr Semalemba noted.
Mr Semalemba also pointed out that Ms Nabikolo in her defence acknowledged the strained relationship with the deceased and that she was ever part and parcel of the plan to kill the deceased in conjunction with Jaden and Nakungu.
The DPP then concluded that the trial judge Wilson Masalu Musene erred to acquit Ms Nabikolo of the murder yet there was overwhelming evidence and testimony from witnesses that she had hired Jaden to murder Kasiwukira having failed to achieve her mission through witchdoctors to whom she was seen visiting frequently with her cousin Nakungu.
Objection
Nabikolo’s lawyer Mr MacDusman Kabega raised an objection saying the appeal ought to be dismissed because it offends the mandatory provisions of Rules 66(1) and 66(5) of the courts of appeal.
Mr Kabega noted that on the charge of murder of which his client was acquitted, prosecution has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased was killed with malice aforethought and that the accused is the one who killed him or indirectly participated in the killing.
“From the evidence on record there was no eyewitness to identify the respondent as one of the killers. No single witness placed the respondent at the scene of murder. Indeed there is unchallenged evidence of the respondent that at the time of the murder, she was at her home,” Mr Kabega submitted.
Mr Kabega asked the three justices, Elizabeth Musoke, Helen Obura and Ezekiel Muhanguzi, to dismiss the appeal and discharge his client.
Meanwhile, the two convicts Nakungu and Jaden, who are each serving a 20-year-jail term for Kasiwukira murder, asked the court to acquit them saying there was no sufficient evidence to prove them guilty.
Jaden and Nakungu, were in 2016 convicted by Justice Musene for forming a common intention to murder Kasiwukira in a disguised car accident.
In their appeal, their lawyer Ladislous Rwakafuuzi raised seven grounds challenging their conviction which included a defective indictment, failing to prove that the deceased’s death was an unlawful act and was caused with malice aforethought.
However in the appeal Mr Semalemba did not file his submissions in response in time and court ordered that he files written submissions after which judgement will be given on notice.
Kasiwukira was killed on October 17, 2014 as he was jogging in the morning in the neighbourhood of Muyenga, a Kampala suburb. He was hit by a car, which sped away after the incident.
The police referred to it as an “intentional run-over”. About two months later, the three main suspects, Ms Nabikolo, Nakungu and Jaden were charged with the murder.
