The Supreme Court Judge, Mary Stella Arach-Amoko, is dead.
The Lady Justice, 68, passed away at Nakasero Hospital in Kampala at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, according to a statement by the Judiciary.
“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Hon. Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, Justice of the Supreme Court,” the Judiciary said in a statement signed by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera.
“Our sincere condolences go out to the family of the Late Hon. Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, the Judiciary, the legal fraternity, the country and the East African region as a whole”.
Justice Stella Arach-Amoko was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2013, a position she has served until the time of her death.
She joined the Judiciary in 1997 as a Judge of the High Court and was elevated to Justice of the Court of Appeal in 2010.
“The Judiciary has lost an extraordinary jurist who has been a champion of justice,” deputy CJ Buteera said, promising to share funeral arrangements in due course.
She has been a member of the Judicial Service Commission, representing Judicial Officers and also a member of the Legal Education, Public Affairs and Research Committee of the Commission.
Arach-Amoko served in the Uganda Attorney General’s chambers from 1979 until 1997, rising from a state attorney to commissioner for civil litigation. In 1997, she was appointed a High Court judge, serving in that capacity until 2010.
Justice Stella Arach-Amoko served at the East African Court of Justice, from 2006 until 2008, as a judge, and from 2008 until 2013, as a “Deputy Principal Judge of the First Instance Division”.
In 2010, she was one of the candidates considered by the Judicial Services Commission, for appointment as the Chief Justice of Uganda.
Between 15 April 2018 until 14 April 2020, Justice Arach-Amoko served as the Chairperson of the nine-member, Management Committee of Uganda’s Law Development Centre. In 2010 she was appointed to the Court of Appeal of Uganda.
In her career on the bench, Justice Arach-Amoko has handled many election cases.
In 2006 she dismissed the petition in which National Resistance Movement’s Francis Babu had challenged Erias Lukwago’s victory as Member of Parliament for Kampala Central Division. In 2012, at the Court of Appeal, she wrote the majority opinion that nullified NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu’s victory as the Member of Parliament for Butambala County. The ruling benefited Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, of the Democratic Party.