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.
The five-member panel dismissed their second appeal on September 17, 2026, finding sufficient evidence to sustain the convictions handed down 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 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, finding that the prosecution had established their participation in the killing. They were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The two later challenged their convictions before the Court of Appeal, but the convictions and sentences were upheld. They subsequently filed a second appeal before the Supreme Court.
Their appeal centred, among other issues, on 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 should automatically benefit the two appellants. 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 concerning the alleged planning of the offence, the appellants’ presence at the scene and the vehicle used in the attack formed a consistent chain pointing to their participation.
The Supreme Court therefore dismissed the appeal and confirmed the 20-year sentences.
The case, PC Jaden Ashraf and Another v Uganda, Criminal Appeal No. 35 of 2021 [2026] UGSC 48, was decided by Justices Prof Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Percy Night Tuhaise, Mike Chibita, Stephen Musota and Monica Mugenyi.
