Court in the United States of America has awarded the family of human rights activist Esther Nakajjigo a sum of US $10.5 million about 40 billion Uganda shillings for negligence that caused her death.
Nakajjigo 25, died in 2020 after getting involved in an accident during a trip to Utah’s Ardes National Park. The deceased and her husband Lodovic Michaud , a French National were travelling out of the National Park when their car was hit by a metal gate. The unsecured gate was blown by the wind and pierced into their rental car and through her head, killing her instantly.
Her family sued the US government in November 2020, demanding 270 million dollars for wrongful death and negligence on the part of the U.S. National Park Service. In their petition, they stated that the agency failed to maintain metal gates for years.
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Bruce Jenkins, U.S. District Judge for the District of Utah, agreed, but only awarded about $10.5 million to her family, $9.5 million of which will go to her husband and the remaining $1 million going to her parents on grounds that both parties were not US citizens .
” The husband is a French citizen, employed in and a resident of the United States. The parents are citizens of Uganda, a poor and heavily populated African national, formerly a part of the British empire. The deceased ,Esther Nakajjigo was a citizen of Uganda, but at the time of her death was a United States resident, newly married to plaintiff Ludovic Michaud. What remained of her (Nakajjigo) in the front seat and floor of the car was gruesome and overwhelmingly shocking.” Judge Bruce Jerkins said in his ruling.
Nakajjigo moved to Colorado in 2019 and was recognized by the United Nations for her work. After seeing a pregnant 14-year-old girl die during a difficult delivery, Nakajjigo decided to use her college tuition money to start a nonprofit community health center that provided free reproductive health services to females aged 10-24.
