Wife Gets 25-Year Jail Sentence for Killing her Husband

A Ugandan High Court in the country’s capital, Kampala has sentenced a woman to a 25 year jail term for killing her husband in 2016.

While sentencing Diana Nabbengo Luutu, a former procurement officer at the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority, Justice Jane Francis Abodo said that prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that she killed her husband.

Court relied on the on the evidence of sixteen prosecution witnesses and a post-mortem report that showed that there were two superficial wounds on the victim’s left breast and in the armpit.

The victim also suffered a bruise on the front chest, two wounds in the muscles and on the sack covering the heart, and a wound on one of the lungs.

The judge also said that the conduct of Nabbengo after the death of her husband cannot be associated with an innocent person.

“She threw the phone to them when PW5 asked for the phone of the deceased and even refused to go sign for the body of her late husband from the mortuary,” Justice Abodo ruled.

The judge held that the offence of murder is punishable by the maximum penalty of death as stipulated under Section 189 of the Penal Code Act.

She, however, said that the death penalty is usually reserved for rare murder cases adding that Nabbengo’s case could not fit the category.

Justice Abodo held that where there is a deliberate pre-meditated killing of the victim, courts are inclined to impose life imprisonment especially where the offence involves the use of a deadly weapon.

She, however, said there was no direct evidence of premeditation although a kitchen knife was used.

“I have considered the aggravating factors in this case being it was a vicious strike in the most vulnerable part of the body- the heart and lungs. The convict left the deceased from around 4:30pm to around 8:00pm bleeding and may be hoping that by the time she returns, [he] would have bled to death. And to her dismay, she returned and found him still alive,” Justice Abodo said.

However, court considered a reformative sentence and the convict being the only parent left for the three children with other family responsibilities and showing signs reforming by joining women groups in prison, and reduced the sentence to 25years.

Court heard that on August 24, 2016 at Kazo, Kawempe Division in Kampala District, Nabbengo with malice aforethought, killed her husband, Hannington Musasizi Asimwe.

The mother of two children who aged below 10 years and who was also pregnant at the time, stubbed Asimwe.

Evidence showed that on that fateful day, Nabbengo sent the maid and her two children to buy a birthday cake for one of the infants.

According to prosecution, she stabbed Asimwe and locked him in the kitchen before going to place of work.

She later returned home with a special hire car and took her injured husband to Mulago Hospital for treatment.

While in hospital, Asimwe who came out of coma briefly, informed his sister that it was his wife who had stabbed him.

Shortly after the dying declaration, Asimwe died.