Ex-death row convict Susan Kigula to address UCU on the death penalty in Uganda

She properly crafted her crime scene, during the course of the day, bought a panga wrapped it in a polythene, and kept it under their bed. She later let her husband fall in a deep slumber. She awoke in the middle of the night, picked her panga, called the maid who held his legs. Then gently slit his throat and slaughtered her husband while her four-year-old son watched the gruesome scene as it unfolded before his eyes.

In the night of 9^th July, 2000, Susan Kigula murdered Constantine Sseremba in the “coldest blood.” Then the following day, she shamelessly ran out of her house stark naked screaming for help from the neighbors alarmed and speechless at how “robbers” attacked her family and heartlessly murdered her husband.

Court pronounced itself and she was condemned to suffer death by hanging.

Subjected to the inhumane treatment of death sentence in Luzira prison, she lived 9 years on death row always suspecting and waiting for the hangman to come say “Inmate P789, let’s go.” For 9 full years, she waited for when she would be hanged.

Together with a number of other 417 inmates on death row, she petitioned court challenging the validity of the death penalty among others. Court decided in their favor and commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment.

In 2011, Justice Vincent Musoke Kibuka of the High Court commuted Kigula’s death sentence to 20 years in prison starting from 2002 up to 2022. However, after a long time being in prison and her good conduct, her sentence was reduced by a third and was released early this year.

While in prison, she studied, taught inmates in schools she established in prison. She was also awarded a diploma in law from the University of London making her one of the first inmates to ever graduate in prison.

Susan Kigula has reformed she admits, and wants to share her life experiences with people all over the world. She intends to talk about the human rights violations in Luzira prison among others.

The UCU Human Rights Association has invited the ex-convict with a number of other panelists-the DPP Hon. Justice Mike Chibita, Ms Peace (a human rights activist) and Mr. Birungi Dennis (Law student) to discuss the “Death Penalty in Uganda.

The event is scheduled to take place on the 4^th of November in the UCU Nkoyoyo hall from 9:00 to 10:30 am.

The UCU community is really anxious to see the “cold blooded killer”, with a number preferring that the Ugandan justice system should have had her hanged. Or did she really reform and a death penalty should not be considered?

Susan Kigula has had a great impact on Uganda’s jurisprudence with her rise to fame in the legal fraternity. However, how long should the fame have lasted?