On Sunday 12 April 2015 at 10:00pm, 23-year-old David Ojok was gruesomely beaten to death at the entrance of Nkrumah Hall by a mob of Makerere University students.
In the aftermath of the shocking murder, criminal charges were brought against three student-suspects, all of them Nkrumah residents. Two months ago, that criminal case collapsed under the weight of insufficient evidence and the three accused were accordingly set free.
Now, the late Ojok’s family has sued the University, claiming UGX 2.6bn as compensation for his murder. This claim is contained in a lawsuit seen by Campusbee which has been filed this evening at the High Court by lawyers from Centre for Legal Aid, the law firm representing Ojok’s distraught family.
In the lawsuit, Ojok is described as “an ambitious, hardworking and illustrious young entrepreneur and fast-rising consultant in the (ICT) field.
He was a renowned computer programmer, software developer and engineer” who also owned and ran a string of businesses, ranging from numerous mobile money outlets to computer repair shops, besides being a part-time on-call ICT consultant for individuals and corporate entities alike.
From his businesses alone, the late Ojok is said to have been earning a monthly income of roughly Ugx 5M, some of which he would use to pay tuition for three of his siblings and also send some to his aging parents.
Led by Ojok’s father Mr. Maxson Okidi, a policeman, the family insists that due to the university’s negligence, Ojok was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and intolerable pain and suffering, and eventually death at Nkrumah which has caused them emotional distress, pecuniary loss and other damage or injury for which they hold the university liable.
Some of the examples of Makerere’s negligence, the family claims, include the following:
- Failure to take reasonable precautions against acts of violence by students on its premises as well as punish the perpetrators of the same as a deterrent measure;
- Failure to give the general public effective warning of possible acts of violence at Nkrumah Hall given that the mob justice incident in which Ojok died was the second in a space of just one month at that same spot, yet the umpteenth in recent times;
- Failure to have adequate and swift ambulance services and emergency reception centers within the university which could have intervened in time to give the deceased first aid and save his life;
- Failure to install adequate security lights and CCTV cameras at Nkrumah Hall not only to deter criminal activity but also make it easier to identify individual students behind repeated acts of violence;
- Failure to monitor and effectively respond to previous incidents of violence and issues of safety and security at Nkrumah Hall; and
- Failure to provide well trained and well equipped security personnel at Nkrumah Hall who could have intervened in time to save the late Ojok from being murdered, among others.
The family asserts that “the university at all material times controlled the means of access to Nkrumah Hall and therefore owed a duty of care to visitors and trespassers alike to ensure that they do not run any risk of suffering injury on the defendant’s premises by reason of any danger due to the state of the premises.
According to the lawsuit, the damage caused to Ojok’s family was exacerbated by the stripping of the deceased before lynching him; the indifference shown by the dwellers of Nkrumah to the physical and emotional distress he went through during the lynching; taking pictures of his bloodied body after the lynching and later widely circulating them on social media without regard for Ojok’s dignity at his last hour; and the continued silence of the university on the issue as if the deceased’s death and the family’s grief did not matter, a combination of which is not only degrading but also “a shattering blow to the conscience and confidence of the public that has entrusted the hallowed university with its children.”
Besides the financial compensation, the family also wants Court to order Makerere to rename Nkrumah Hall to “Ojok Hall” not only in memory of the deceased, but also as a lasting indicator of its commitment to stamp out mob justice on its premises, construct a security wall around the campus, install CCTV cameras equipped with night vision at Nkrumah and other halls [the criminal trial collapsed partly because suspects could not be identified], among other reliefs.
By press time, the suit had not been allocated a hearing date.
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