A crane loads what remained of the car that lawyer Raphael Okiot (inset) was driving before a hurtling concrete mixer truck crashed him on Entebbe Road April 17, 2024. Photos/Ivan Walunyolo/Courtesy
Yesterday, the dawn cracked as a normal day for the family of lawyer Raphael Okiot and Faith Irene Kwagala, a Grade One Magistrate working in the western Kyenjojo District.
The couple woke up in good spirits, having the previous evening enjoyed dinner at their home in Seeta, Mukono District.
An advocate in private practice and lecturer at Uganda Christian University (UCU), his alma mater, Okiot went to bed with his mind on a client he had to represent at court in Entebbe, a Lake Victoria peninsula roughly 50 kilometres from Seeta.
His wife Kwagala said both of them set the alarms on their mobile phone handsets to ensure the husband woke up at 6am, in time for the trip. He prepared with speed.
“I asked him if I could fix him something to eat before he left for court, and he declined and drove off,” she said.
As fate would have it, that was the last time the pair spoke or Ms Kwagala saw her husband alive. In the hours shortly after his departure, a freak accident happened, snapping up Okiot’s life instantly.
Accounts by witnesses, and images from Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras footage, indicate that a driver of a hurtling concrete mixer truck whose brake failed attempted to power over the road separator onto the empty carriageway for oncoming traffic.
However, the truck twisted and fell on its sides, smashing Okiot, 34, in a car that he and wife had acquired four days earlier.
Residents of Nkumba and passersby howled in horror and disbelief. Dozens dashed to the scene of the macabre crash, but the first responders were unable to do anything, let alone marshal human energy to lift the 30-tonne-filled cement mixer truck.
Police assembled a crane and arrived much later, witnesses said, and pulled the truck off and towed away the mangled saloon car from which Okiot’s smashed flesh was sawed out.
It was a scene beyond heart-breaking. The life of a young professional with a promising legal and scholarly career had been abruptly terminated.
As the news spread, so did the pain for family and relatives, friends, students and professional associates who eulogised the deceased as an honourable man of largesse and brilliant.
Mr Tonny Tumukunde, a managing partner at Tumukunde & Co Advocates, described his deceased friend as jovial and loving person who would sacrifice the little he had for the sake of others.
“He was a go-getter, very hardworking, and a lover of his family. Raphael was very loyal to his friends and one thing he never hid was the love for his little daughters,” Mr Tumukunde recounted.
Likewise, Mr Mike Muhereza, an associate at the same law firm, remembered Okiot as “very brilliant lawyer” who was outstanding in what he did, explaining his retention by his alma mater as a lecturer.
One of his students at UCU, Ms Barbra Namata, upon hearing the tragic passing on of their lecturer, spoke fondly of his encouragement on academic matter.
“When I heard the news, there were so many thoughts and memories that raced through my mind. The most recent one was where he was genuinely concerned about my coursework performance, but [he] advised me to keep pushing. I condole with his family because this pain and shock is unimaginable,” she said.
The wife spoke of Okiot as a loving man who had a tenderness for their children. They on Sunday, a day after buying the car from a bond in Banda, Nakawa just outside Kampala, fired to the eastern Jinja City – some 80kms– to check on their son who lives with grandparents there and is in baby class at a nursery school.
“He (Okiot) loved children and when we reached there (in Jinja), he bathed his son, took him to a salon, and had a good time with him,” Ms Kwagala recounted.
There was not much to speak of premonition, but she says her late husband, at the weekend, recited the adage that a person who can drive in Kampala and India can drive anywhere in the world.
Many of the roads in the Ugandan capital are broken, with large potholes, and mainly commercial taxi operators and commuter taxis zigzag on lanes, often jumping traffic lights.
Such confusion, Ms Kwagala said, made her husband conclude that motoring in Kampala is hard full-time job.
“We had just acquired that car and yesterday (Tuesday), I requested him to take it back to the car bond in Banda, [outside Kampala], where we had bought it from to have the rear camera fixed since it was not working,” she said.
The sellers did not fix the device on Tuesday as planned, explaining why Okiot was to return to them yesterday after court appearance to defend a client.
“But since he had a matter at Entebbe court, he decided to first go and attend court and then pass by the car bond to have it fixed,” she added.
That was never to be. Death snatched Okiot yesterday, prompting Ms Kwagala to reminisce their life together as university heartthrobs who founded a family, begot children they loved and separately pursued legal careers that looked destined to a promising horizon.
Ms Kwagala described Okiot, with whom she had lived for 12 years, as a loving, forgiving and supportive husband who looked out for people and would give out whatever little he had even if he remained with nothing and looked up to God.
Besides lecturing law at UCU, he worked at the law firm MALDES Advocates, formerly KTM, on Kyaggwe Road above Watoto Central Church in Kampala’s Nakasero neighbourhood.
Mr Keith Busingye, a lawyer at Bashasha & Co Advocates, who studied with the deceased at the Law Development Centre (LDC), told this publication the deceased bagged a first-class diploma at LDC before joining Uganda Christian University for his law degree.
“We last met with Raphael at Uganda Christian University in Mukono where he helped me meet the Dean of law. He was the kind of person who was always willing to offer a hand to people. He was a top academician whom you could term as a moving dictionary,” recalled Mr Busingye.
Another law student at UCU, Mr David Kolok, described Mr Okiot as humble and preferred to relate in the simplest terms possible with his students to avoid any kinds of exaltations from his students.
“He was not only passionate about his subject, but also skillful in imparting knowledge to his students. Death can be so cruel and as my pastor says, ‘good people do not stay long [on earth]’,” Mr Kolok added.
Witnesses’ accounts
Mr Najid Huzaifa, a councillor in Nkumba Ward where the accident happened, said many car fatal crashes have happened at the traffic lights where Okiot met his death yesterday, turning it into a black spot.
Mr John Kasimbazi, the managing director of Rock Zone Hotel, which is about 20 metres from the scene of yesterday’s accident, said “when cars are sloping down from Kampala side to Entebbe, many times they fail to stop … you hardly spend a day without a car knocking a person”.
He asked the Uganda National Roads Authority, the agency in-charge of trunk roads, to put up signs and humps at the approach to slow motorists.
Police towed the mangled wreckage of the car, and the killer truck, to their main station in Entebbe from where the trapped body of Okiot was sawed out.
Driving tip
What drivers should do when brakes fail
Sam Bambaza, the executive director of Hope for Victims of Traffic Accidents, an organisation that champions safety on Ugandan roads, says surviving such accidents is tricky and depends on the person whose vehicle has failed.
“[Yesterday’s] scenario was too difficult for that lawyer because he was not aware of anything happening and even that truck driver tried to save a life but the truck failed,” he said.
He added: “In such scenarios, it’s the driver whose vehicle has failed to stop who must alert others by pressing his horn and putting on warning lights like double indicators and the other occupants can now move away.”
Simon Peter Kinobe, former Uganda Law Society president
Gone too soon. He was a man of good character. Okiot Raphael, rest in peace. May God give strength to your family.
Tonny Tumukunde, lawyer and friend
We laughed together, we partied together, we read together, we shared rooms when back from nightlife, and we survived an accident just a few days before my introduction. I saw you being cut out of the wreckage and felt life is just mere paper. Rest well brother.
Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, NUP president
Deepest condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Mr. Okiot Raphael who perished today in a terrible car accident at Nkumba. Praying for peace and comfort at this very difficult time. We must all be concerned that the late Okiot remained trapped under the wreckage for over 5 hours before the authorities started efforts to rescue him. We must work for a Uganda where citizens receive swift and efficient public services, especially during emergencies.
Bernard Oundo, president of Uganda Law Society
It is a sad day for the Uganda Law Society, especially considering the gruesome way in which he met his death. We are waiting for the preliminary findings from the traffic police report and we will accordingly follow up with the responsible party to ensure the family gets justice.
Failing brakes and freak accidents
Previous incidents
December 7, 2023: Two people died at Northern Bypass Namboole interchange and three others sustained injuries when a Kampala-bound trailer failed to brake and rammed into 10 vehicles.
November 4, 2023: A speeding commuter taxi killed nine people on the spot after slamming into a stationary trailer on the Jinja-Iganga highway.
June 15, 2023: A driver of an Isuzu Elf truck lost control after the brakes failed, knocking four boda boda riders, killing one of them.
March 14, 2023: A truck crashes into a classroom at Kasaka Secondary School in Kanoni Town Council, Gomba District, killing four students on the spot and injuring 20.
March 2, 2023: A Canter truck rams into the perimeter wall of Candy Kids Nursery and Primary School in Kamuli, Kira Municipality, killing seven-year-old Robinah Nakafero, who was in Primary Two.
November 7, 2019: A Sino truck filled with aggregate stones fails to brake and crashes a boda boda posthumously identified as William Matovu on Ntinda-Kiwatule Road. Eight others were injured.
April 24, 2019: A trailer loses brakes in Bukoto, in Kampala, and ploughs through vehicles at Kira Road Police traffic lights, claiming the lives of three and injuring several.
April 22, 2018: A Fuso truck fails to brake and slams into the traffic lights at Nakawa, a city suburb. No one was killed or injured, but critical road safety infrastructure was damaged.
1990s: Twenty people perish after brakes of a packed commuter taxi fails at Namboole interchange, and plunges into a deep side drain.
Compiled by Busein Samilu
