Toko, Judge Die In Crash

By GEOFFREY KAMALI AND James OdongFORMER vice-chairman of the defunct Military Commission, Brig. Gad Wilson Toko and Christine Kania, a member of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), yesterday died alongside two other people in a motor accident on the Jinja-Kampala highway.The accident occurred at about 10:00am at Bulumagi, about 13km from Jinja, after their vehicles collided.Brig. Toko, an airforce commander under the Idi Amin regime, was the de facto vice-president of the short-lived Tito Okello Lutwa’s military junta in 1985. Christine Kania was a former chief magistrate of Mukono and Jinja and wife to High Court judge Augustine Kania.Toko was driving towards Jinja with his wife, Reste, in a Nissan Patrol vehicle, UG 0027Q, while Kania was travelling to Kampala in a rented Mitsubishi Chariot, UAD 919T.Police identified the two other victims as Ahmed Marijani, the driver of the hired vehicle and Vincent Kiwanuka, her official driver.Witnesses said Kania and the two drivers died on the spot while Toko died on the way to Jinja hospital. Their bodies were taken to the hospital for a postmortem.A pathologist said the four were already dead on arrival at the hospital. He said Toko’s body bore no injury while Kania’s had injuries on the forehead. Marijani and Kiwanuka suffered head and multiple injuries.Toko’s wife, Reste, and Kania’s bodyguard, George Alioni, were admitted to Jinja hospital in critical condition. Reste had a thick plaster on her right eye and was still in comma by yesterday afternoon.A traffic officer, Betty Achanit, who visited the scene shortly after the accident, said Toko was overtaking a tipper truck carrying sand at high speed when he crashed into Kania’s car.“It was a case of improper overtaking. He tried to overtake a truck at a bad spot where he could not see on-coming traffic,” Achanit said.Ends