KAMPALA – A woman who was allegedly poisoned at parliament has filed an application in the High Court in Kampala seeking reinstatement of the case.
Ms Dona Kamuli has challenged the dismissal of the case by court and wants the case to be heard afresh and determined on its merits.
This reinstates trouble for Kanungu District Woman MP Elizabeth Karungi who is accused masterminding the poisoning of a Parliamentary female staff in mistaken identity.
It is alleged that the MP poisoned the victim in mistaken identity of the actual target after suspecting another woman of having an affair with her husband.
Last week, the 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.
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 exams 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. I 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.
The case
In the main case which was dismissed, 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 Nassuuna are light-skinned and worked together at Parliament at the time of the poisoning. Similar skin colour is said to have created a mistaken identity. Nassuuna was an intern at Parliament at that time.
Ms Kamuli further states that MP Karungi regretted to her that she had realized 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 3 pm and 4 pm, MP Karungi, through an agent administered poison in a packed water bottle. She says she sought specialised treatment for the poison at Agha 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 defends herself
In response, according to the court record, MP Karungi said the people she had hired to kill the woman who had an affair with her husband brought her a picture which she realised was of another person who also worked at Parliament.
