Poisoned staff seeks to restore case against MP

The case in which the Kanungu District Woman MP Elizabeth Karungi is accused masterminding the poisoning of a Parliamentary staff in mistaken identity is not yet over after the complainant challenged the dismissal of the case by court.
It is alleged that the MP poisoned the victim after suspecting another woman of having an affair with her husband.
Last week, court dismissed with costs the 2018 case for lack of prosecution. The court observed that the victim, Ms Donna Kamuli, did not show up in court to adduce evidence against MP Karungi.
However, Ms Kamuli has filed an application in the High Court in Kampala seeking reinstatement of the case and have it heard and determined on its merits.
Ms Kamuli, now a fourth year student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, states that her case was dismissed in her absence because she was doing examinations while her lawyer, Mr Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, is bedridden and undergoing treatment in a hospital in Nairobi.
“I am very interested in my case, it was coming up for hearing before this court. Myself and my counsel had diligently attended previous sessions such as mediation. I am told that the defendant has a counterclaim against me which means she too is interested in this suit and there are serious triable issues which deserve disposal on merit,” she states in the application seeking reinstatement of the case.

Main case
Ms Kamuli alleges that MP Karungi later apologised to her that her target was a different woman called Sophie Nassuuna whom her husband was allegedly having an affair with and would pick her from Muheki Hostel in Kikoni suburb every morning.
Both Ms Kamuli and Ms Nassuuna are light-skinned and worked together at Parliament at the time of the poisoning. Ms Nassuuna was an intern at Parliament at that time.
Ms Kamuli further states that MP Karungi apologised to her that she had realised how an innocent person could be killed in mistaken identity.
“The plaintiff’s (Ms Kamuli) cause of action is for damages, compensatory and punitive arising from the defendant’s (MP Karungi) deliberate poisoning of the plaintiff and costs of the suit,” the statement of the plaint in court reads in part.
Ms Kamuli states that on September 1, 2018 between 3pm and 4pm, MP Karungi, through an agent administered poison in a packed water bottle. She says she sought specialised treatment for the poison at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi-Kenya and later in South Africa.
Narrating how it all started, Ms Kamuli contends that on August 31, at about 7:02pm, MP Karungi called her by telephone to propose a meeting, but she promised to call the MP back because she was at a party.
Ms Kamuli further states that the following morning, the MP called again. This time Kamuli demanded to know who was calling her and Ms Karungi introduced herself as Kanungu District Woman MP and that she had something personal to discuss with her.

MP’s defence
Mistaken. In response, according to the court record, MP Elizabeth Karungi said the people she had hired to kill Kamuli brought her a picture which she realised was of a person who worked at Parliament.