State to appeal in traffic case

By Allan Turyaguma The state will appeal against the Mbarara Chief Magistrates’ court ruling in which a bus driver involved in an accident where five family members were killed, was acquitted of traffic offences.Mbarara district resident state attorney Wilfred Mulumba said on Wednesday that the state had enough evidence to show that Lawrence Mukasa, who was driving an Izuzu bus UAA 413W belonging to Travellers Choice Ltd, negligently caused the death of five people in September last year on the Mbarara-Masaka highway. “There is no way the state cannot appeal against this judgement. There was a lot of implicating evidence against the driver,” Mulumba said. Mbarara Chief magistrate Cissy Mudhasi on Tuesday acquitted Mukasa of five traffic offences, saying prosecution had not given court enough evidence to pin him to the death of the five people whose saloon car collided with his bus.Mudhasi said some traffic offences like reckless driving were not clearly defined by law and that prosecution had failed to prove Mukasa guilty. An eyewitness said Mukasa was talking on a mobile phone before the collision.John Muganzi, his three sons and sister-in-law, Jennifer Rwakishumba, died in the crash.