Man convicted over death of beauty queens, journalist

MPIGI - A man has been sentenced to jail after being found guilty of causing an accident that killed two beauty queens and a journalist two years ago.

Court in Mpigi convicted Patrick Muhiire (pictured) who will have to have to serve a two-year jail term or pay a fine not exceeding sh8m.

He was found guilty of three counts: causing death, causing body injuries and reckless driving.

The July 4, 2015 accident happened along the Kampala-Masaka highway. Norah Atim (Miss Tourism Northern), Resty Namawejje (Miss Tourism Central second runner-up) and Barbra Nakiwolo, an NTV journalist, were killed in that crash.

Five other people were injured. Muhiire was behind the wheels of the ill-fated vehicle (Prado) destined for Mbarara for a beauty pageant.

Police arrested Muhiire and he was charged before court in August, 2015. The case had been going on since.

Mpigi Grade One Magistrate Viola Ninsiima delivered the verdict on Monday, saying she was convinced by the evidence produced before court by state attorney Charlotte Nanziri.

Court ‘unfair'

Relatives of the late beauty queens were present in court when the sentence was being read but they were not entirely content with the sentence.

They felt the convict should have been given more time in jail.

Emily Likico Opu, the mother of Atim, said although she was not satisfied with the judgment, she was happy that after one and half years they had spent coming to court, at last they have received some justice.

"I think the court was unfair to us. Imagine we lost our daughters and the man who is responsible for the death of our children is just given a minimum sentence."

She said the tourism ministry and the Uganda Tourism Board, which had contracted their daughters to work as tourism ambassadors, have neglected their pleas for compensating the lives of their children.

"It's now coming to two years and we have not been compensated for. Our daughters died in the hands of the tourism ministry but they have neglected us."

Ramurah Birungi, the mother to Nakiwolo, welcomed the court's judgment and said they have at least got some justice from courts. But she pleaded to the tourism ministry to compensate them for their children.