Ms. Nabbengo Diana Luutu, a former procurement manager in the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) has been convicted of murder by the High Court at Kampala.
She was indicted for murder in 2016. The Director of Public Prosecutions alleged that on the 24th day of August 2016, Ms. Nabbengo Diana with malice aforethought unlawfully killed her husband, Mr. Musaasizi Hannington. That on 24/8/2016 at about 12:00 pm, Ms. Nabbengo Diana returned home from work and had lunch with her family including her husband. Thereafter, she sent their maid with their two children to buy a birthday cake for one of the children. When the maid and the children returned, they found Ms. Nabbengo Diana at the gate. She ushered them inside, locked the gate and left. They entered the house and found Mr. Musaasizi Hannington on the kitchen floor with a stab wound on his chest. Ms. Nabbengo Diana returned. She called her sister in law and they took Mr. Musaasizi to the hospital where he died.
The case was prosecuted by Ms. Fatina Nakafeero, Ag. Principal State Attorney. The prosecution adduced circumstantial evidence which the court relied on to convict Ms. Diana Nabbengo. First, Ms. Nabbengo Diana was left by the maid and their children at home alone with her husband, in a normal state shortly before her husband was found injured on the kitchen floor. Second, Mr. Hannington Musaasizi on his death bed identified Ms. Nabbengo Diana, his wife, as the person who injured him. Third, Ms. Nabbengo Diana’s conduct after the commission of the offence was not of an innocent person; she left home immediately after her husband was injured, she hesitated to report the matter to the police, and she attempted to clean the blood in the house before the police could visit the crime scene. Fourth, Ms. Nabbengo Diana told lies; that she spent the whole day in her office and that she found her mentally unstable maid at home with her husband injured. The prosecution adduced evidence of the maid, the cake vendor and the receipt of the purchased cake to prove that Ms. Diana Nabbengo sent the maid with her children to buy a cake and remained with her husband in the house at about 3:00 pm when he was injured. In addition, the prosecution adduced medical evidence to prove that the maid was in a normal mental state.
Being satisfied with the evidence of the prosecution, the Hon. Lady Judge Jane Frances Abodo disregarded Ms. Nabbengo Diana’s alibi that she was at her place of work in PPDA up to 7:00 pm only to find her husband bleeding profusely. The Hon. Judge found her guilty and convicted her. She then sentenced her to a custodial sentence of 23 years, 9 months and 3 days.
We are contented with the conviction and the sentence. We find the judgment fair. We encountered hurdles in prosecuting this high profile case and so we are pleased that justice has finally been done in it. We applaud the Ag. Principal State Attorney, Ms. Fatina Nakafeero for a job well done.
Jacquelyn Okui,
Public Relations Officer. #ODPPUGANDA #COURTUPDATE
