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 Bugembe Ssebunya, popularly known as Kasiwukira.
A five-member panel dismissed their second appeal on September 17, 2026, finding sufficient evidence to sustain the convictions by the High Court and their subsequent confirmation by the Court of Appeal.
Kasiwukira was killed on October 17, 2014, after he was knocked down by a vehicle while jogging near his home in the Muyenga Diplomatic Zone in Kampala. The vehicle fled the scene.
Ashraf, who was then attached to Muyenga Community Police Station, and Nakungu were charged alongside Kasiwukira’s widow, Sarah Nabikolo Ssebunya. All three denied the charges.
In October 2016, High Court Judge Wilson Masalu Musene acquitted Nabikolo but convicted Ashraf and Nakungu, sentencing each to 20 years in prison.
The two appealed to the Court of Appeal, but the convictions and sentences were upheld. They subsequently filed a second appeal before the Supreme Court.
Their appeal challenged, among other issues, the prosecution’s reliance on circumstantial evidence and the effect of Nabikolo’s acquittal on their own convictions.
The Supreme Court rejected the argument that Nabikolo’s acquittal automatically entitled the two appellants to an acquittal.
The justices held that an acquittal of one accused person does not exonerate co-accused where there is independent evidence establishing their individual criminal responsibility.
The court found that evidence relating to the alleged planning of the killing, the appellants’ presence at the scene and the vehicle used in the attack formed a consistent chain of evidence linking them to the offence.
The Supreme Court consequently dismissed the appeal and confirmed the 20-year prison sentences.
The ruling was delivered in PC Jaden Ashraf and Another v Uganda, Criminal Appeal No. 35 of 2021 [2026] UGSC 48.
The case was heard by Justices Prof Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Percy Night Tuhaise, Mike Chibita, Stephen Musota and Monica Mugenyi.
