KAMPALA – Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga who was sentenced to 20 years in prison six years ago for killing her husband has cried out to court to set her free saying it was an accident.
Appearing before a panel of three justices of the Court of Appeal, Uwera through her lawyers of AF Mpanga Advocates raised four grounds in which she faulted the decision of the High Court judge Duncan Gaswaga.
In the grounds, she stated that the trial judge erred in law when he relied on an equivocal out of court statement (declaration statement) of the deceased to convict her.
She also noted that the judge erred in law when he failed to properly evaluate the evidence adduced at the trial and applied it to the law of the offence of murder, shifted the burden of proof from the prosecution and placed it on her and unduly relying on circumstantial evidence to infer guilty upon her.
Led by the deputy chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo will deliver the judgement on notice.
Other justices include; Elizabeth Musoke and Barishaki Cheborion.
Uwera was convicted of murder and handed a 20-year-jail sentence. Justice Gaswaga found her guilty of killing her husband Juvenal Kananura Nsenga by running him over with a car at their home in Bugolobi, Kampala in January 2013.
In their brief submissions Mr David Mpanga, one of Uwera’s lawyers asked the appeal court to quash the conviction and sentence reasoning that the car accelerated accidentally and knocked the gate open occasioning injuries on the deceased which ultimately caused his death.
He also asked court to put an emphasis on the declaration statement of the deceased which he said was in their mother tongue Kinyarwanda that ‘my wife has killed me’.
Mpanga told the justices that the witnesses gave their own interpretations of the statements based on their personal comprehension.
However, the prosecution led by Ms Josephine Namatovu asked court to uphold the decision of the High Court saying that the accident was not accidental, as Uwera’s lawyers want court to believe.
She explained that Uwera’s car had no mechanical issues at the time of the incident since she used the same to transport the deceased to hospital after her actions.
