Nine convicted over Susan Magara murder
“I find all the accused persons guilty of the offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder as charged. Accordingly, all of you are convicted,” Justice Ajiji ruled.
Suspects accused of kidnapping and murder of Susan Magara appearing at High Court in Kampala on Thursday, July 30, 2026. They have been convicted today (August 03). (Photo by Margret Zalwango)
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The nine people who have been indicted in connection with the February 2018 kidnapping and the gruesome murder of Susan Magara, the former cashier at Bwendero Dairy farm in Mengo, Kampala, have been convicted by court after over six years of protracted trial.
They are Yusuf Lubega, Mahad Kisalita, Ismail Bukenya, Muzamir Ssali, Abubaker Kyewolwa, Hassan Wasswa, Abbas Musa Buvumbo, Hussein Kato Miiro and Hajara Nakandi.
Convicting them on Monday, August 3, 2026, High Court judge Alex Mackay Ajiji of the Criminal Division of the High Court in Kampala ruled that the prosecution, through its evidence from 45 witnesses, proved beyond reasonable doubt that the nine and their accomplices, Yakub Byensi and Hakim Lugolobi, who are still at large, kidnapped and murdered Magara for purposes of securing a ransom from her liberation.
“I find all the accused persons guilty of the offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder as charged. Accordingly, all of you are convicted,” Justice Ajiji ruled.
The judge said the group formed a common intention to kidnap Magara to procure a ransom, save that they chose to kill her because they had held her for a long time (about three weeks) and it was risky for them to release her alive.
The judge relied on the postmortem report, forensic report, scene reconstruction videos, call data records, sketch plan, crime scene investigation reports, and an unexplained source of income, which they used to procure several vehicles and pieces of land in Buikwe and Luwero, among others, to find them guilty of the offences.
Case adjourned to tomorrow, Tuesday (August 4) for allocutus proceedings.
Susan Magara, the 28-year-old daughter of businessman John Magara, was kidnapped on February 7, 2018, on Kabaka Anjagala Road in Mengo, a Kampala suburb,, as she drove back to her home about three kilometres away.
Her kidnappers then contacted her family and demanded one million US dollars (about sh3.65b) as ransom.
Court heard that her two fingers were chopped off by the ransom seekers, packed them in an envelope together with a flash disc showing the footage as they were being cut and sent the same to her family in a bid to compel her family to pay the ransom.
Despite the family having delivered $200,000 (about sh700 million) to the ransom seekers, Magara was brutally murdered by her captors.
Three weeks later, on February 27, 2018, her body was recovered from Kigo in Wakiso district, where it had been dumped.
Last week, court assessors including Sarah Babirye, Brenda Magoba and Ritah Padera recommended the conviction of the nine, saying the prosecution has proved all the ingredients of the offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder against them beyond reasonable doubt.
The case
Prosecution said the convicts and others still at large on February 7, 2018, kidnapped Magara with intent to procure a ransom for her liberation from the danger of being murdered.
According to the prosecution, Magara was a victim of a ransom scheme hatched by Yakub Byensi, a former Allied Democratic Force (ADF) combatant who hails from Bunyoro, just like Susan and that he was known to her family.
Armed with the information, the convicts, according to the prosecution, started trailing her until they kidnapped her.
Evidence adduced in court showed that the convicts first kept Magara in captivity at Nakandi’s home in Nateete and later transferred her to Bukenya’s home in Konge II in Makindye Division, Kampala.
This is where her two fingers were chopped off by Buvumbo and the same were sent to her family to show them how determined the convicts were to kill her if the ransom money was not paid.
According to the prosecution, the convicts and their accomplices resolved to kill her because releasing her would expose them.
Prosecution said the convicts used part of the ransom money to procure several motor vehicles and land in Buikwe and Luwero districts, respectively.