The High Court in Arua has ordered an inquest into the 2018 fatal shooting of Yasin Kawuma, the driver of National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, nearly eight years after he was killed during the Arua Municipality parliamentary by-election campaigns.
In a judgment delivered on Monday, Justice Harriet Grace Magala directed that the inquest be conducted by the Chief Magistrate of Arua Chief Magistrate’s Court, ruling that the circumstances surrounding Kawuma’s death warrant an independent judicial inquiry in the interests of justice.
The application was filed by Kawuma’s widow, who sought a court order compelling the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Jeje Odongo, to appoint a coroner to investigate the killing.
She argued that her husband’s death was violent and unnatural and therefore required an inquest under the Inquests Act.
Court records show that Kawuma was shot dead on August 13, 2018, during the heated campaigns for the Arua Municipality parliamentary by-election.
According to a medical certificate issued by Arua Regional Referral Hospital, he died from a brain injury caused by gunshot wounds.
The Attorney General opposed the application, arguing that the High Court lacked the authority to compel the minister to appoint a coroner and that the applicant should first have exhausted other remedies available under the law.
However, Justice Magala dismissed those objections, noting that the government did not dispute that Kawuma died from gunshot wounds and that the medical evidence clearly established his death as violent and unnatural.
The judge explained that the purpose of an inquest is not to determine criminal liability but to establish how, when and where a person died.
She added that such proceedings serve the interests of the deceased’s family, the public and the administration of justice.
Justice Magala further held that although the court could not compel the minister to appoint a coroner, Section 27(a) of the Inquests Act empowers the High Court to order an inquest.
The Chief Magistrate’s Court in Arua will now conduct the judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Kawuma’s death.
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