Two of the nine people convicted over the 2018 kidnap and murder of businesswoman Susan Magara have been sentenced to death, while the remaining seven will serve life imprisonment.
High Court Judge HW Alex Mackay Ajiji handed the death sentence to Hajara Nakandi and Abbas Musa Buwembo on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, ruling that their roles in the abduction, torture and murder warranted the maximum punishment.
The seven others identified as Yusuf Lubega, Mahad Kisalita, Ismail Bukenya, Abubaker Kyewokya, Hassan Wasswa, Hussein Kato Miiro and Muzamir Ssali were each sentenced to life imprisonment.
The court also ordered that properties acquired using the ransom money be confiscated and sold, with the proceeds paid to Magara’s family.
Magara, 28 years, was abducted on February 7th, 2018, while driving home through Lungujja in Kampala. A friend who was speaking to her on the phone heard a struggle and screams before the call went dead. Her Toyota RAV4 was later found abandoned with the engine running and her phones still inside.
The kidnappers held her captive for nearly three weeks, demanding up to $1 million before accepting about $200,000 (approximately UGX 700 million). During her captivity, they cut off two of her fingers and sent them alongside a video of her pleading for help to pressure her family into paying the ransom.
Despite receiving the money, the kidnappers killed Magara between February 25th and 27th, 2018. Her body was discovered at Kitiko-Birongo along the Entebbe Expressway. Court evidence showed she had been injected with ketamine before dying from suffocation.
Prosecutors described the crime as a carefully planned, financially motivated operation carried out with extreme cruelty to eliminate a witness who could identify her captors. Nakandi was found to have provided the house where Magara was held and influenced the decision to kill her, while Buwembo was convicted of directly participating in her mutilation and murder.
The other convicts were linked to surveillance, guarding the victim, transporting her, collecting the ransom and sharing in the proceeds of the crime.
The nine were arrested in April 2018 during a joint security operation at Usafi Mosque in Mengo-Kisenyi, Kampala, where investigators said the kidnapping had been planned. Although they denied the charges, Justice Ajiji on August 3rd convicted them after prosecutors presented testimony from more than 40 witnesses, alongside DNA, forensic, phone and financial evidence.
The sentencing concludes one of Uganda’s most high-profile kidnap and murder cases, although the alleged masterminds, Yakub Byensi and Hakim Lugolobi, remain on the run.
