Court of Appeal upholds Uwera Nsenga’s 20-year-jail term for murder

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Court of Appeal has upheld the 20-year jail term given to Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga for the murder of her late husband, Juvenal Nsenga in a disguised vehicle accident. Justices Afonse Owiny-Dollo, Elizabeth Musoke and Cheborion Barishaki upheld the sentence in their verdict delivered on Monday morning.

Nsenga was convicted in 2014 by High Court Judge, Duncan Gaswagga who found her guilty of murdering her husband, Juvenal Nsenga when she crashed him with a vehicle at their family home in Bugolobi, a Kampala suburb on January 10, 2013.

However, Nsenga petitioned the Court of Appeal through her lawyers led by David Mpanga challenging her conviction and sentence. She argued that the trial judge erred in law and fact by relying on the statements made by the deceased outside court to convict her.

She faulted the judge from relying on the words of the deceased saying “My wife has killed me” to prove that there was intent for murder. The convict also faulted Justice Gaswagga for failing to properly evaluate the evidence on court record and apply it to the offense of murder among other grounds.

However, the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Josephine Namatovu objected to the appeal, saying the vehicle that knocked the deceased was in good mechanical condition and that there was nothing like accidental acceleration. Prosecution also argued that it was the same vehicle that was used to take the deceased to hospital for treatment after being ran over.

In their judgment read by the Court of Appeal Registrar, Mary Babirye, the Justices noted that after reading Justice Gaswagga’s judgment, they found that he was alive to the law on the burden of standard of proof in criminal cases and as such rightly applied the law to arrive at his decision.

They also observed that Justice Gaswagga took note of several aspects of the defense evidence such as the evidence from the scene of crime, mechanical condition of the car, which knocked the deceased, the bad relationship in their marriage, the evidence of threats uttered against the deceased by the convict and her strange conduct before, during and after committing the crime.

“After reading the Judgment of the learned trial Judge, we are unable to accept the criticism leveled by the counsel of the appellant that the trial judge shifted the burden of proof on the appellant. We therefore find no merit in ground three of the appeal as well”, said the Judges.

They dismissed the appeal, saying that they had re-evaluted the evidence on court record and found that the conviction and sentence of Nsenga to 20 years in jail was proper. Nsenga who stood attentively in the dock in her African dress and surgical mask looked on as the registrar read the judgment.

It is unclear clear whether Nsenga who has returned to Luzira prison is going to proceed to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision. Nsenga has so far served 7 years since she was convicted.

****

URN