The late Morrish Humphrey Ojok (1981-2025) (File photo).
Mrs. Dorcus Auma alias Dorcus Ilukor, the embattled wife of the late South Sudan AMREF Country Director, Morrish Humphrey Ojok, who spent 1 year, 11 months and 29 days in her marriage to the deceased has applied to court to halt the burial of her late husband by the Lukwor clan in Atyang Village Lakwana Subcounty. The late Morrish Humphrey Ojok passed on, of a yet unknown sickness, at IMC medical facility in Gulu, April 8, 2025 and owing to the contestation, his body has since been lying in the military morgue in Gulu.
Mrs. Dorcus Auma alias Dorcus Ilukor wants the remains of her husband buried at Koro Barogal where she claims they have matrimonial property which property is also contested by another woman, Susan Mukyala with whom the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok has five children and also claims the late customarily married her at Kamuli, way back in 2015. She further claims that the same Koro Barogal claimed by Dorcus Ilukor, and alternately, Kampala has since been her abode with the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok.
While Susan Mukyala has no objection to the late being buried at Atyang Village in Lakwana, Dorcus Ilukor is not relenting in her application that the late is laid to rest at Koro Barogal. Lakwana Atyang Village is the proposed burial site by the mother of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok, and first respondent in the case, Ms. Acan Lango Florence.
Justice Lillian Alum of Gulu High Court Circuit, May 12 to May 13, 2025, presided over what was dubbed an expeditious hearing to speed up the burial as other issues pertaining to marriage and property will later on be heard. The judge allowed cross examination of the applicant by the respondent’s lawyer Counsel Byamugisha Deus Barusya and below is a summary of what transpired during the cross-examinations of the “wives” of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok.
GULU CITY-MONDAY MAY 12 – TUESDAY MAY 13, 2025
By Okumu Livingstone Langol
On Monday, May 12, 2025, at 3:19 p.m., Gulu High Court Clerk knocked on the door, and there emerged the presiding judge, Justice Lillian Alum Omara, a lady with a very cool demeanor but with a mean looking male escort in tow. The court attendants rose up in reverence.
“Before we proceed I want you to understand that the case that will be heard is about the burial, other matters concerning marriage and property will be heard later on,” the presiding judge said in her opening remarks.
However, as it turned out, the hearing, or to be more precise, the cross-examination seemed more to do with marriage that burial.
“For the record I am Barusya Deus Byamugisha, the lead-Counsel for the respondent,” said the lawyer set to cross-examine the applicant, Dorcus Auma alias Dorcus Ilukor.
During the cross-examination, the lead counsel posed a question to the widow, Dorcus, as to where the late Morrish Humphrey married her “traditionally” as she preferred to put it.
The applicant responded that it was at Ireda village in Lira District. However, the applicant could not name the LCI chairman of the village.
The applicant testified that she is 37 years old, and was traditionally married in May 2023 by the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok as Dorcus Ilukor, and that this was followed by a church wedding in June 2024, by which time her name was certified as Dorcus Auma, Auma being a pet name that she took from her great grandmother, who was named Auma.
She revealed that the inconsistency in her name was later corrected by her clan to a preferred Dorcus Ilukor and a fresh certificate issued. However, she could not produce the original of the corrected certificate, leading Counsel Barusya to put it to her that the so-called corrected certificate was a forge-and-scan job.
The applicant named two places where her introductions prior to the marriages, Ireda and Angwet-angwet but she could not name the LC-I chairpersons of both places. She revealed that one of the introductions was with an aunt, Mary Anyero at Angwet-angwet, and that Mary has another home in Alebtong, their village home, but that this was not the preferred site for the marriage.
The applicant was asked to give an account of where she lived after Ireda and she said after spending about 10 years in Ireda, she has lived in South Sudan, Kapoeta, Juba, Kakoma in Kenya, Gulu and Barogal in Koro. However, she could not account for the exact time-frame she lived in those places. The judge had expressed interest in knowing the months and years of her settlements but she fell short of the required details.
Pressed, Dorcus revealed that since 2014, she has been living in Juba South Sudan. She claimed that she was the primary caretaker of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok when he sought medical treatment in Juba and Nairobi.
Asked as to whether she would recall the period of time she has lived with her late husband in Uganda, Dorcus answered that she did not calculate the period she has lived with the deceased in Uganda.
Dorcus further agrees that she was introduced to Lukwor clan to which the late husband is said to belong but that she has only visited Atyang Village in Lakwana a day prior to her wedding.
“Since you were born have you ever told a lie?” Counsel Barusya asked, to which she answered, no. She said the name with which she was baptized is Dorcus Ilukor, and that she used that same name in school and that her clan, Okwero-wee uses both the names Auma and Ilukor. She revealed that upon correcting her name from Auma to Ilukor, Mr. John Bosco Ogwal a mediator in their marriage gave her a flash disk of containing a copy of the corrected version and not a hard copy.
The case was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. to Tuesday, May 13 at 9:00 a.m.
Dorcus Ilukor claimed she has only met the mother of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok’s children when she went to visit one of the children at school but that she is not aware deceased married her despite the fact they have five children together.
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2025
At 9:00 a.m., May 13, 2025 as promised, a similar revered entrance of the presiding judge Lillian Alum Omara occurred, culminating into allowance of the continuation of the cross-examination of Dorcus Ilukor, later to be followed by the cross-examination of the mother of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok, Florence Acan Lango, and later on of Dorcus’ “co-wife” Susan Mukyala.
During the cross-examination, Dorcus re-affirmed that Koro Barogal is their matrimonial home with the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok, though admittedly, she spent most of her time with the deceased in South Sudan.
She claimed that she, gainfully employed as a nurse in South Sudan, and the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok jointly looked after his children and periodically spent time together with them at her “matrimonial home” at Koro Barogal when the children were for school holidays.
Tasked to confirm if her witnesses were in court, Dorcus informed court that her witnesses, Dennis Okot and Ceasar Komakech Ocitti were reportedly intimidated and decided against attending the court session.
She informed court that the two individuals named are the brothers of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok and that they belonged to the Pachua clan in Cwero.
Dorcus informed court that Dennis Okot was intimidated by two boda boda motorcycle taxi operators against attending the court session but she offered no information as to who intimidated Ceasar Komakech Ocitti.
The court session eventually morphed into a cross-examination of the first respondent, Florence Acan Lango by Counsel Peter Layoo of Kunihira and Company Advocates.
Florence Acan Lango confirmed that the genitor of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok was Alfred Ocitti Ayero of the Pachua clan but that the said Alfred Ocitti Ayero had since passed on, and that she single-handedly raised her late son as belonging to her natal home among the Lukwor clan.
Florence informed court that she believed the long home where the remains of her son should be laid to rest is Atyang Village, Lakwana Subcounty, despite the fact she acquired another home in Pece in Gulu City.
Florence Lango Acan revealed that while in Uganda, the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok alternately spent his time in Pece, Lakwana and at Koro Barogal where he lived alone.
She informed court that the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok customarily married Susan Mukyala in March 2015. She further informed court that she objected to the marriage of the late Morrish to Dorcus and never attended the purported wedding.
Counsel Peter Layoo later turned to cross-examine the respondent Susan Mukyala.
Susan Mukyala informed court that she was customarily married to the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok at Kamuli in 2015, and has a document to back that up. The lawyer, however, put it to her that the document lacked the signature of the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok and also that she, Susan Mukyala’s signature is not seen in the document.
Susan informed court that she alternately stays with her children in both Kampala and at Koro Barogal and that she has keys to the house at Koro Barogal.
Counsel Peter Layoo waved a land title that shows that the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok was the sole owner of the property at Koro Barogal.
Having exhausted the cross-examination at around 1:30 p.m., Judge Lillian Alum Omara adjourned the case to Tuesday, May 20 when both the applicant lawyer and the respondents’ lawyer will appear in court with their summaries. That will be followed by an announcement of the date for the court ruling where the late Morrish Humphrey Ojok will be buried as other matters pertaining to marriage and property will persist in court.
As it is, one month going to two months, there is no clarity when court will grant permission for the late Morrish to be buried and exactly where remains a puzzle that the deeply troubled family, friends and in-laws are grappling with.
Meanwhile the late Morrish doctorate is set to be ratified in a graduation ceremony posthumously as he had only got his letter of award from LIGS University.
