Nsenga case: Reduce charge to manslaughter, say assessors
Ms Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga disembarks from a prisons bus at High Court yesterday. Photo by abubaker lubowa
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Court assessors said they were not convinced by the State that Ms Nsenga deliberately killed her husband.
Kampala
Breaths were held yesterday as High Court assessors read out their opinion, advising court to acquit Ms Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga on the charge of murder and instead find her guilty of a lesser offence of manslaughter.
Ms Uwera is charged with causing the death of her husband and city businessman Juvenal Nsenga when she knocked and ran over him with a car as he opened the gate for her early last year at their Bugolobi home in Kampala. She has maintained the incident was only an accident caused when the vehicle jerked, accelerating on its own.
After summing up the evidence before him, Justice Duncan Gaswaga guided court assessors Rehema Babirye and Roberts Lubega on crucial areas upon which to hinge their advice to the court.
He tasked them to pronounce themselves on the ingredients of a murder charge ascertaining if, “indeed there was death, whether it was unlawful, caused by malice aforethought and the accused participated in or caused it.”
After three hours of deliberations, the assessors in their joint opinion agreed on all the three ingredients but said they were left confused and not sure if prosecution had adequately proved Ms Uwera intended to kill the father of her two children.
Reading their two page handwritten opinion, Mr Lubega said, “On malice aforethought we are not entirely contented that the accused intended to kill the deceased. The circumstances around their family business, the relationship and the conduct before, during and after the incident leave us confused if she had intention. We are not satisfied.”
He then opined, “We advise this court to find her guilty of a lesser offence of manslaughter.” The opinion stirred ambivalent reactions from the fully packed court as Ms Uwera was led back to a waiting prisons bus on her way back to Luzira prison where she is on remand.
Principal State Attorney Susan Okalany welcomed the assessors’ opinion, ‘the Atate has no problem with the assessors’ opinion though we are confident we satisfactorily proved murder, so we await the judge’s final ruling,” she said.
“Assessors are ordinarily not legal practitioners but members of the public whose opinion is not binding on the judge. He can choose to ignore it,” lawyer Yunus Kasirivu told the Daily Monitor. Justice Gaswaga said he will give his judgment on notice.
