Joan Kagezi

Joan Kagezi
Born Joan Namazzi
(1967-07-14)14 July 1967
Luteete, Rakai, Uganda
Died 30 March 2015(2015-03-30) (aged 47)
Kiwaatule, Uganda
Residence Najjera, Uganda
Nationality Ugandan
Ethnicity Muganda
Citizenship Uganda
Alma mater Makerere University
(Bachelor of Laws)
Law Development Centre
(Diploma in Legal Practice)
Eastern and Southern African Management Institute
(Died Before Graduation)
Occupation Lawyer
Years active 1992 – present
Known for Law
Home town Rakai
Title Deputy Director of Public Prosecution
Uganda Ministry of Justice
Religion Christian
Spouse(s) Henry Morton Kagezi – RIP

Joan Namazzi Kagezi (14 July 1967 – 30 March 2015), was a Ugandan lawyer and prosecutor. At the time of her death, she was the Assistant Director of Public Prosecution and Head of the International Criminal Division in Uganda's Ministry of Justice.[1]

Background and education

She was born Joan Namazzi to Kaggwa Sserwadda and Mrs. Sserwadda of Luteete Village, Rakai District, on 14 July 1967. She attended Nsuube Primary School from 1973 to 1980. She studied at Mount Saint Mary's College Namagunga, a prestigious, all-girls boarding senior secondary school in Mukono District, for both her O-Level and A-Level education. In 1987, she entered Makerere University to study Law, graduating in 1990, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. She went on to earn the Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre in 1992. At the time of her death she was pursuing the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute.[2]

Career

During her entire 23-year career as an attorney, Joan Kagezi served as a public servant with the Government of Uganda. Straight out of the Law Development Centre in 1992, she secured a position as land officer in the Uganda Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. In May 1994, in the same year, she was appointed State Attorney in the Ministry of Justice. She received a promotion to Principal State Attorney, in February 2002. In August 2007 she was promoted to Principal State Attorney. In January 2015, she was appointed Head of the International Crimes Division, at the rank of Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.[2]

Death

On the evening of Monday, 30 March 2015, at about 7.30 pm local time, Joan Kagezi, who was driving an official Ford double-cabin pick up with government number plates, but without security, stopped at a road-side stand to buy fresh vegetables, in the Kampala suburb of Kiwaatule. Her intended final destination was her home in the adjacent neighbourhood called Najjera. In the pick-up with her were three of her four children, two girls and one boy. One of the girls left the vehicle to go pay and pick up the produce and the rest of the family stayed in the vehicle. While the girl with the groceries was walking back to the car, a man approached the truck on the driver's side. He knocked on the driver's window which was closed, appearing to be making an inquiry. When Kagezi opened the window, the man pulled out a gun and shot her twice in the neck at close range, jumped on the back of a waiting motor cycle (boda boda) and sped off.[3] She was rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival at about 8.00 pm, Kampala time. She was 47 years and 7 months old.[4][5][6]

On 8 April 2015, a heavily armed force of Ugandan and US security officials apprehended Jamal Abdullah Kiyemba an individual formerly held in Guantanamo.[7][8][9] Three other men apprehended with Kiyemba were: Ismael Ssendawula, Siraje Serugo and Bashir Nyangisu. According to Nicholas Bariyo, reporting in the Wall Street Journal: "one lawyer said the move stemmed from a witch hunt amid fears of a terror attack."[10]

Case load

Among the high-profile prosecutions that Joan Kagezi participated in or led, over her 21 years as a government prosecutor, were the following:[3]

  1. The prosecution of Ugandan-born Australian cardiologist, Dr. Aggrey Kiyingi for the assassination of his wife, lawyer Robinah Kasirye Kiyingi, who was gunned down in July 2005, outside the gate of the family mansion in Buziga, an upscale neighbourhood in Uganda's capital Kampala. The state lost that case.[11]
  2. The trial and conviction of former Arua Municipality, Akbar Hussein Godi, whose wife was killed on 4 December 2008, in Mukono District. In February 2011, Godi was sentenced to 25 years in prison, on murder charges of Rehema Caesar Godi, who was 19 years old at the time of her death.[12]
  3. The prosecution and conviction of Kampala businessman Thomas Nkulungira, also known as "Tonku", whose girlfriend was killed between 21st to 30th December 2010, and her body was dumped in the septic tank at Nkulungira's house in Muyenga, a Kampala suburb. On 13 August 2011, a judge sentenced Tonku to death for capital murder.[13]
  4. The prosecution of Thomas Kwoyelo, a warlord in the Lord's Resistance Army, on charges of kidnapping, murder, rape and human mutilation and torture.[14] The trial was terminated when Uganda's Constitutional Court granted Kwoyelo amnesty.[15] However, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Uganda reversed that decision, on 8 April 2015, sending the case back to the Uganda High Court for trial.[16]
  5. The ongoing prosecution of 13 individuals accused of participating in the July 2010 Kampala attacks, which occurred during the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final match, killing at least 79 people.[17]

Family

While an undergraduate at Makerere University in the late 1980s, she met her future husband, the late Henry Morton Kagezi. He died of natural causes in 2006.[18] Together, they had four children, two boys and two girls; George Phillip Kagezi born in 1993, Carol Milcah Kagezi 1994, Pearl Priscilla Kagezi 1999, and John Harvey Kagezi, born in 2004. President Yoweri Museveni has pledged to pay the children's school fees until each child determines that he or she does not want to study any more.[19][20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ntale, Samson (31 March 2015). "Motorcycle Gunmen Kill Ugandan Prosecutor". Cable News Network. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 Ainomugisha, Lydia (4 April 2015). "10 Life Lessons From Kagezi". Daily Monitor (Kampala). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 Wesaka, Anthony (1 April 2015). "Kagezi, The Name Synonymous With Handling High Profile Cases". Daily Monitor Mobile. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Job Bwire, Stephen Otage, and Anthony Wesaka (30 March 2015). "Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi Shot Dead". Daily Monitor (Kampala). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  5. ↑ World News, . (30 March 2015). "Lead Prosecutor in al-Shabaab Bombing Trial Shot Dead in Uganda". The Guardian (London) Quoting Agence France-Presse in Kampala. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  6. ↑ Byaruhanga, Catherine (31 March 2015). "Uganda Prosecutor in al-Shabab Bomb Case Shot Dead". BBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Jamal Kiyemba, former Guantanamo prisoner, held in Uganda killing: Local prosecutor killed last month in suburb of Kampala". CBC News. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015. He said that while there was no conclusive evidence tying Kiyemba to the killing on March 30 of Ugandan prosecutor Joan Kagezi, detectives were questioning him about his possible role in that crime and a range of other offenses.
  8. ↑ "Guantanamo was a painful experience – Kiyemba". New Vision (Uganda). 8 April 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015. The now 36-year-old, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of being an Al-Qaeda terrorist and sent back to Uganda in 2006, still finds it difficult to talk about the four years he spent in various American detention centers: first in Pakistan, then in Afghanistan and finally in Cuba.
  9. ↑ Alfred Windera (8 April 2015). "Details emerge about Kagezi murder suspect". New Vision (Uganda). Retrieved 8 April 2015. Heavily armed Counter-Terrorism Unit operatives on Tuesday arrested four men including a former Guantanamo Bay detainee over alleged links to terrorist groups.
  10. ↑ Nicholas Bariyo (8 April 2015). "Ugandan Police Arrest Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Wesaka, Anthony (31 March 2012). "Did The State Lose Interest in Pursuing Robinah Kiyingi Murder Appeal?". Daily Monitor (Kampala). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Edward Anyoli, and Pascal Kwesiga (11 February 2011). "MP Godi Jailed For 25 Years Over Murder". New Vision (Kampala). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Andate Okanya, and Edward Anyoli (13 August 2011). "Tonku Sentenced To Death". New Vision (Kampala). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Okeowo, Alexis (20 July 2012). "Thomas Kwoyelo's Troubling Trial". The New Yorker. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  15. ↑ Mmali, Joshua (22 September 2011). "Ugandan LRA Rebel Thomas Kwoyelo Granted Amnesty". BBC News. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Okanya, Andante (8 April 2015). "Kwoyelo Amnesty Plea Flops". New Vision (Kampala). Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Pflanz, Mike (13 July 2010). "Suicide Bomb Vest Found at Third Ugandan World Cup Venue As Police Hunt Suspects". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Chibita, Mike (2 April 2015). "Who Kills A Widow in the Presence of Her Children?". New Vision (Kampala). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Kakumirizi, Michael (2 April 2015). "I Will Pay Fees for Kagezi's Children – Says Museveni". Daily Monitor (Kampala). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  20. ↑ The Monitor Staff, . (3 April 2015). "Museveni Visits Kagezi's Family". Daily Monitor (Kampala). Retrieved 5 April 2015.

External links

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