Leave Ms Kasiwukira alone

What you need to know:

  • Bugembe was run over by a hit and run car while on his daily jogging routine. The incident happened a few metres away from his home.
  • The events that followed the incident led to the arrest of the widow Nabikolo, her cousin Sandra Nakungu, and a policeman Jayden Ashraf.
  • If a man is killed and the first suspect is his wife, it speaks volumes. The family must have known quite a lot, that is why even after court has pronounced itself on the matter, they insist otherwise. Who knows, maybe they know how difficult the marriage had become.

Is it the new world order? I want to think it is more of disorder than order. Things have fallen way apart.

Where I come from, wives mourned their husbands for a year and more. At the funerals, they would be surrounded with people trying to comfort them and pledging to stand with them through thick and thin. This is not the case anymore. Today if your husband dies you are in a lot of trouble. If it is poison, you are the first suspect.

If he is shot, you must answer a few questions. If he dies of high blood pressure, you caused him the stress. If it is HIV, you must have “brought it”.

We can no longer sit decently in the widow's seat and mourn gracefully. If something happens to your husband, look for a lawyer, before you think about his funeral arrangements.

As you read this, the family of the late Eria Bugembe a.k.a Kasiwukira is heading to the Court of Appeal. The family does not agree with the High Court judgement that acquittedSarah Nabikolo Sebunya who had been charged with the murder of her husband, Bugembe.

Bugembe was run over by a hit and run car while on his daily jogging routine. The incident happened a few metres away from his home. The events that followed the incident led to the arrest of the widow Nabikolo, her cousin Sandra Nakungu, and a policeman Jayden Ashraf.

Court found Nakungu and Ashraf guilty of murdering Bugembe and accordingly sentenced them, but the family says no, there is a mistake somewhere. Nabikolo must be the murderer, or at least one of them.

I am no expert on the law, and I cannot tell who is guilty and who is not, but I wish to state a case for women, wives if you like.

The prosecution was able to prove that Bugembe's sister-in-law and Ashraf were guilty of murder.

When we are wronged and we go to court, our interest is to get justice and court delivered that. Why then does Bugembe's family want his wife to be guilty? Why can't they simply apologise to her and mend the now broken relationship between them and their daughter-in-law?
Bugembe was no ordinary mortal. That is why his murder appears on Kampala's list of high profile cases. At the time of his death, Bugembe was the deputy treasurer of the much hyped Kwagalana Group, a rich man's club in Kampala.

Bugembe had made it. Those who know the family say his wife greatly contributed to his success; and what does she get for a reward? Co-wives, allegedly including her own cousin, Nakungu. It was reported that at the funeral Nabikolo declared she had turned to Christ and even forgave the women that had had extra-marital affairs with her husband and even sired children with him.

Which brings me to my point. If a man is killed and the first suspect is his wife, it speaks volumes. The family must have known quite a lot, that is why even after court has pronounced itself on the matter, they insist otherwise. Who knows, maybe they know how difficult the marriage had become.

In my court, Nabikolo is innocent. Like many wives, she must have resigned to her fate and let nature take its course.

The man had other women, and whatever he did with them must surely not be what Nabikolo could be privy to.
Certainly a lot must have happened between Nakungu and her brother-in-law that was hidden from Nabikolo. Since the family believes Nabikolo could have murdered her husband, why don't they think that Nakungu could have murdered her lover?

You see, fire is fire, whether from an electric gold-plated oven or from an ordinary charcoal stove. Not only was Nabikolo dealing with a betraying cousin sister and husband, she also had a much younger woman for a co-wife. Isn’t it time to just let Nabikolo rest?

Why can't the family simply see beyond Nabikolo? Could Nakungu have felt that Bugembe had used and dumped her? A man who chooses to have an affair and does not even make an effort to look further than his wife's cousin is infuriatingly daring. If he could dare Nabikolo that much, what did he do to the cousin in the wake of the newest "wife"?

Not so long ago, another woman Jacqueline Nsenga was convicted of the murder of her husband, Juvenal Nsenga. It was alleged that the wife had run over her husband as he opened the family gate to let her in. Whether it was an accident or not, is not what I am writing about. What I know is that the prosecution proved their case beyond reasonable doubt and she is serving her time. If court found Nabikolo innocent, accept the verdict and let her settle back into her life.