Mohammed Yasin Sekajolo v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No. 18 of 1991)

Observed later treatment

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal against conviction for attempted murder, holding there was clear and strong evidence that the appellant waylaid and cut the complainant with a panga, severely injuring his arm such that it required amputation, and that the appellant acted with malice aforethought given the use of a dangerous weapon and the risk of fatal blood loss. The appellant's account of being himself attacked elsewhere was rightly rejected as false. However, the Court found the 8-year sentence excessive, allowed the appeal against sentence, and substituted a sentence of 6 years' imprisonment, taking into account the long period the appellant had spent on remand.

Outcome

Conviction for attempted murder upheld; sentence reduced from 8 years to 6 years' imprisonment

Facts

The appellant was at loggerheads with his relatives, including the complainant Kiseka Jamad, his cousin, over land that had belonged to the appellant's late father. On 28 March 1985, at about midday, the appellant waylaid the complainant in the complainant's banana garden and cut him with a panga on the left arm. The arm was so badly injured that it had to be amputated above the elbow. During the attack the complainant raised an alarm, which was promptly answered by three witnesses who found the complainant and the appellant at the scene; the appellant, brandishing his panga, threatened them and tried to chase them away while the complainant lay on the ground with a badly injured arm. The appellant claimed he had instead been attacked by the complainant and others on a road about 200 metres away, and that the complainant was injured by a blow aimed at the appellant, but this account was rejected as false.

Issues

1. Whether the conviction for attempted murder was supported by the evidence.
2. Whether the appellant acted with malice aforethought.
3. Whether the sentence of 8 years' imprisonment was excessive.

Orders

• Appeal against conviction dismissed.
• Appeal against sentence allowed.
• Sentence of 8 years' imprisonment set aside.
• Sentence of 6 years' imprisonment substituted.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (1)

• Penal Code Act s.197(a)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Muhammed Yasin Sekajjolo v Uganda [1992] UGSC 8

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.