Kampala: Police, DPP read from different page on Nsenga’s murder case

By ANDREW BAGALA.

Police have petitioned the Attorney General, Mr Peter Nyombi, to block murder charges against Ms Jackie Uwera, the widow to businessman Juvenal Nsenga.

The charges had been brought forward by the Director of Public Prosecutions but police say they had found no evidence of intentional killing against the accused. Ms Uwera knocked her husband down while driving through the entrance of their home in Bugolobi, a Kampala suburb, in January.

The police have since, however, declined to take Ms Uwera to court, insisting that there is no evidence to pin her.

A source at police, who preferred anonymity because he is not allowed to talk to the press, said the police had written to the Attorney General, who had also written to the Prime Minister to access the file. “Police disagreed with the DPP’s interpretation of the law and they have written to the Attorney General to make his interpretation,” the source said.

Police’s petition follows the DPP Richard Buteera’s refusal to meet the police bosses in regard to his interpretation of the case. “The two parties scheduled to meet several times but the DPP declined, which prompted the CIID Deputy Director Geoffrey Musana to write to the Attorney General last month,” the source added.

Ms Uwera has been detained at the Special Investigations Unit in Kireka since February 2, as police investigated the case. “The deceased and suspect are both connected to high-profile persons in the criminal justice system,” a source said. Ms Uwera is reportedly a sister-in-law to Gen. Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police, while the deceased was a close relative to a top public prosecutor in the DPP’s office.

It is alleged that the senior officer in the DPP office personally went to the morgue in Mulago hospital to pick Nsenga’s body.

Ms Jane Kajuga, the DPP spokesperson, reaffirmed yesterday that they sanctioned murder charges against Ms Uwera and sent the file back to police. “We sent back the file charging the widow with murder. We shall take her to court,” Ms Kajuga said.

The police spokesperson, Ms Judith Nabakooba, the commandant of Special Investigations Unit, Ms Beata Chelimo, and the director of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence, Ms Grace Akullo, declined to comment on the case.

Source: Daily Monitor (10/04/2013): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Police--DPP-read-from-different-page-on-Nsenga-s-murder-case/-/688334/1744008/-/95mwobz/-/index.html