You murdered your husband, judge tells Nsenga widow

Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga cries in the dock at High court yesterday as the judgment was being read to her. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa

What you need to know:

Court found the widow of guilty for killing her husband malice aforethought.

Kampala- “I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. The accused is guilty and convicted as charged.” When Justice Duncan Gaswaga made this pronouncement, yesterday at about 11:30am in his signature baritone voice, Court Room 1 was engulfed in silence and emotion.

Streams of tears rolled down Uwera Nsenga’s eyes; they bulged as she stared at him speechlessly, breathing heavily, licking her grayish lips slowly and butting her eye lids reluctantly. Shock was written on her sweaty face, which seemed to say, “I cannot believe it.” She looked around the dock, threw a glance at her weeping relatives and pulled out a handkerchief.

No ordinary day
The judge, in his robes, visibly calm, stared back at her and closed the file gently before throwing the matter to the prosecution and defence.

This was no ordinary verdict. The judge, usually in court by 9am, was 40 minutes late. The judgment day was kept a top secret. This was a case that from the beginning had all and sundry guessing wildly and widely.
Yesterday, when Justice Gaswaga strode into the court room, he said, “This case is for judgment. The bar, are you ready? The accused are you ready? I shall read fast because it is quite long.”

It was a culmination of an action-packed trial; the state and defence lawyers had a near physical brawl; tension between the two families grew by the day; the Directorate of Public Prosecutions was pitted against the Criminal Investigations Department, whose deputy testified against the state in a case where he was chief investigator.

Many people looked at this as a love story of a couple gone bad, hitting the rocks and ending in the most heart-wrenching of ways. A husband, and father of two, was dead.

The wife, and mother, was facing a possible maximum death sentence. The children and in-laws were caught in the slippery labyrinth. A future was shattered.

Uwera was accused of killing her husband, Juvenale Nsenga when she ran over him in January 2013 at their Bugolobi based home as he opened the gate. In the judge’s finding, she “drove the vehicle with reckless abandon without regard to human life and intended to kill the deceased. It was not accidental!” Her explanation that the car jerked and she does not know what happened after was nothing but, “the easiest way out of the situation.”

Justice Gaswaga ruled that the history of the marriage gone sour, the death threats, the dying declaration and Uwera’s suspicious conduct after the incident, was sufficient proof of malice aforethought. When he finally pronounced his ruling, the court screamed in loud silence.

Senior principal state attorney Susan Okalany said, attracting sneers, “My Lord we pray for the maximum sentence of death to send a strong message against domestic violence. It is not the solution. The children are better off without this killer woman.”

Defence will today submit on the conviction after which the judge shall hand down his sentence.

THE JUDGE'S RULING

In his ruling, Justice Duncan Gaswaga poured water on the defence’s passionate argument that the case was all but a family property contest and the in-laws were pursuing her over the same.

He clarified, “From the outset, I must warn that the matter before me is not a civil matter. This is a criminal session to determine guilty or not guilty. The family court is already dealing with the property issue.”

As defence lawyers took notes, Justice Gaswaga stared at them and read, “This case is a result of the state carrying out its duty of prosecuting crime. There is no evidence that the in-laws pushed for the case, it is totally wrong for defence to take this as a property fight, it is misleading and diversionary.”

The judge scoffed at the lawyers’ argument that the in-laws had repeatedly forgiven Nsenga for the fatal accident “referring them to the case of Mehemet Ali who was prosecuted for attempting to assassinate Pope Paul in 1991 even when the pontiff publically forgave and prayed for him.

Witnesses defended
The judge then defended the credibility of the prosecution witnesses, majority of whom are Uwera’s in-laws, saying, “I found them credible, truthful, confident and they knew the family well and therefore were reliable.” He instead cited contradictions in Ms Nsenga’s evidence.

After summarising the arguments from either side, the seasoned judge, reputed for his thoroughness and international exposure, then delved into the ingredients of murder.

The judge said the dying declaration by the deceased businessman, in which he told several people, “My wife has killed me in my own compound,” were not innocent statements as he made them in excruciating pain and with fair control over his mental faculties.

“No man wants to meet his creator with a lie on the lips,” he remarked, stirring giggles in the fully packed court.
This, he ruled, was corroborated by a history of a marriage that “was dead” so much that, “bad blood flowed up to the point of his death”.

Famous murder cases involving women

Susan Kigula. She was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband Constantino Sseremba in cold blood as he slept in his bed in 2002. Kigula was sentenced together with her maid, Patience Nansamba, who was her accomplice. Later, their sentences were reduced; 20 years for Kigula and 16 for Nansamba.

Lydia Draru. She was convicted of manslaughter, a lighter offence of causing death unintentionally and sentenced to 14 years after killing former army commander James Kazini in 2009 when she hit him on the head repeatedly with an iron bar in her house in Wabigalo-Namuwongo, a Kampala suburb.

Jane Ndichu. The then 23-year-old student of Kampala International University was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nine years imprisonment after killing her boyfriend David Musunga in 2010 in their one-roomed house at Kansanga in Makindye division near the University.