Her lordship Mary Stella Arach-Amoko has died at Nakasero Hospital in Kampala,aged 68. According to statement released by deputy chief justice Butera revealed that judge Arach passed away at 4:00 a.m. on 17th June 2023.
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.
She 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.
This is the third high profile judicial officer to die this year after the death of justice Kenneth Kakuru and Ruby Opio Aweri.
