Two sentenced to death, 7 to life over kidnap and murder of Susan Magara

What the report says

The High Court in Kampala has sentenced two people to death and seven others to life imprisonment over the 2018 kidnapping and murder of Ugandan businesswoman Susan Magara, ending a case that has run for more than eight years. The ruling was delivered on Wednesday by Justice Alex Mackay Ajiji in a packed courtroom, according to The Observer.

Hajjarah Nakandi and Abbas Musa Buvumbo received death sentences after the court found they played the most direct roles in Magara’s abduction, prolonged captivity, torture and killing. Seven others — Yusuf Lubega, Hussein Wasswa, Hassan Kato Miiro, Muzamir Ssali, Muhammad Kisalita, Abubakar Kyewolya and Ismail Bukenya — were given life terms for their roles in what the judge described as a coordinated criminal operation.

The court heard that Magara, who was 28 and worked as a cashier at Bwendero Dairy Farm, was abducted in Kampala on February 7, 2018. She was held for nearly three weeks, during which her family was asked for ransom. Her body was later found along the Entebbe Expressway. The judge said the evidence showed she was tortured and then killed after the captors feared she could identify them.

The ruling also ordered the forfeiture of assets linked to the ransom money, with the proceeds meant to go to Magara’s family. The case relied on testimony from dozens of witnesses and forensic evidence. The judgment underscores Uganda’s continued use of severe penalties in especially serious kidnapping and murder cases, and it was presented by the court as a deterrent against organised ransom crime.