Magara murder trial flops over prosecutors' retreat

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The hearing of the case in which nine people are accused of kidnapping and murdering Susan Magara hit a snag on Monday, December 2, 2024, because of the absence of the prosecutors in the case.

Adjourning the case to Monday next week, High Court Judge Alex Mackay Ajiji said he had been informed that about 78 prosecutors including Joseph Kyomuhendo, Irene Nakimbugwe and Sherifah Nalwanga, the prosecutors in the case are attending the Uganda prosecutor's annual retreat in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

“For that reason, the matter is adjourned to Monday next week,” Ajiji said.

They include Hajarah Nakandi, Ismail Bukenya, Mahad Kisalita, Yusuf Lubega, Muzamir Ssali, Hassan Kato, Hussein Wasswa, Abubaker Kyewolwa and Abbas Musa Buvumbo have been remanded until then. So, far 36 witnesses have testified.

A letter obtained by New Vision Online indicates on November 28, 2024, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Jane Frances Abodo granted the prosecutors permission to travel to Zanzibar to attend their retreat.

The retreat ended on December 1, however, a source said the prosecutors encountered challenges in booking a flight back home.

The defence lawyers in the matter are Richard Kumbuga, John Kabagambe, Benjamin Peter Wanda and Zaina Nabukenya.

The case

Susan, 28, a daughter of businessman John Magara was kidnapped on February 7, 2018, along Kabaka Anjagala Road in Mengo, a Kampala city suburb as she drove back to her Lungujja home about three kilometres away.

Her kidnappers then contacted the family and demanded $1m (about sh3.65b) before they could release her.

Despite the family having delivered $200,000 (about shillings 700 million) to the kidnappers, Magara was murdered and three weeks later, her body was recovered from Kigo in Wakiso district on February 27, 2018, where it had been dumped.

The allegations

The prosecution alleges that the accused and others still at large on February 7, 2018, kidnapped Susan with the intent to procure a ransom for her liberation from the danger of being murdered.

The indictment indicates that Magara was a victim of a ransom scheme hatched by Yakub Byensi, a former combatant with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who hails from Bunyoro like her and that he was known to her family as well Lubega who used to work in Container Village with Magara’s mother. Byensi is still at large.

Armed with insider information, the suspects, according to the prosecution, started trailing Magara until they kidnapped her in Lungujja on her way home.

They allegedly first took her to Nakandi’s home in Nateete and later to Amir Bukenya’s home in Konge II Makindye from where her two fingers were cut off and sent them to her family to show their determination to murder her if ransom money was not paid.

The indictment indicates that the decision to kill Magara was because releasing her would expose the kidnappers.

The prosecution alleges that part of the money was used by the accused persons to buy several pieces of the land in Buikwe and Luweero district respectively.