The Supreme Court has upheld the murder convictions and 20-year prison sentences of Police Constable Jaden Ashraf and Sandra Nakungu over the 2014 killing of businessman Eriya Sebunya Bugembe, popularly known as Kasiwukira.
A five-member panel dismissed their second appeal on September 17, 2026, finding no merit in the challenges against the convictions imposed by the High Court and later upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Kasiwukira was killed on October 17, 2014, after he was knocked down by a speeding vehicle while jogging near his home in the Muyenga Diplomatic Zone in Kampala. He died from multiple crash injuries, according to evidence presented during the trial.
Ashraf and Nakungu were charged alongside Kasiwukira’s widow, Sarah Nabikolo Ssebunya. In October 2016, High Court Judge Wilson Masalu Musene acquitted Nabikolo but convicted Ashraf and Nakungu and sentenced each to 20 years in prison.
The two appellants argued before the Supreme Court that their convictions were largely based on circumstantial evidence and questioned whether the evidence sufficiently connected them to the murder.
They also argued that Nabikolo’s acquittal weakened the case against them because she had been alleged to have been involved in planning the killing.
The Supreme Court disagreed, finding that there was independent evidence against Ashraf and Nakungu. The justices said evidence concerning the planning of the offence, their presence at the scene and the vehicle used in the fatal attack formed a consistent chain pointing to their participation.
The court further held that the acquittal of one accused person does not automatically result in the acquittal of co-accused where separate evidence establishes their individual criminal liability.
The appeal was consequently dismissed, leaving the 20-year sentences in place.
The decision brings another chapter to a case that has remained before the courts for more than a decade.
