Fresh details show that eight out of the 10 people who shot to death by police officers and soldiers at the home of Butambala County MP, Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, haven’t been claimed.
Investigators have established that only two out of 10 were residents of Butambala district and they have since been claimed and buried by family members. However, police and sister security agencies are still pondering on where the eight other killed people had come from since all Butambala residents have confirmed that they were not known in the area.
Butambala county election was violence mostly in the evening hours and wee hours of the night as the fierce competition was between the incumbent Kivumbi and new entrant Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjjogi. The later was finally declared winner unseating the former who had been representing the constituency in parliament for over 15 years.
Although earlier information by police spokesperson, ACP Kituuma Rusoke, indicated that the fatalities occurred when they attacked a police station, investigations have since established and confirmed that they were actually killed inside MP Kivumbi’s home.
Information already obtained by Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), Joint Operations Committee (JOC), Defense Intelligence and Security (DIS) and Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) indicate that the killed attacked soldiers and police officers on vehicles carrying ballot boxes from Mukiibi’s strongholds such as Bulo.
“We have interviewed 21 witnesses and have all confirmed that these goons attacked soldiers and police officers on vehicles carrying ballot boxes to district tally centre. The soldiers were pelted with stones and after they ran to hide in Kivumbi’s house,” a senior security officer who is part of the investigating team said.
The soldiers jumped off the vehicles and pursued them up to Kivumbi’s home which is along the road leading to the district headquarters where the tally centre was. The soldiers ordered the attackers to open the door but they refused. This was when four of the soldiers fired bullets into the house leaving 10 people dead.
“The soldiers acted out of anger because they had been injured with stones. The killed youths, we have established were being driven in a black Drone which was severally seen at Kivumbi’s rallies. Three days to the election, it was impounded by the police and it is currently being kept at Kibibi police station,” a security officer said.
Kivumbi was arrested on Thursday by soldiers backed up by Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) from his Buwate home in Kira Municipality. He was later on transported to Butambala district and was on Friday charged with terrorism.
Efforts to speak to ACP Rusoke on unclaimed bodies were futile as he did not pick nor return the call. However, Katonga regional police spokesperson, Lydia Tumushabe, said she needed time to collect information about the inquiry we were making. By press time, she had not gotten back to us as she promised.
Preliminary investigators indicate that three of the eight unclaimed bodies were youth picked from Nansana and relatives are being traced. Others were reportedly collected from Kampala suburbs to make part of Eggali (gang) many parliamentary candidates used during campaigns across the country.
Kivumbi’s wife Zahara Kivumbi said her spouse was grabbed as he intended to drive out of the Buwate home. This was after their gateman opened the gate and was sandwiched by armed soldiers who also slapped him.
Kivumbi’s wife further explained that seven of the security men found her in their matrimonial bedroom and demanded for the husband’s passports and hers. “I told them my passport wasn’t around. They took his passport. I was terrified and I didn’t get time to speak to him before they left. It was a shock, it is scaring and I couldn’t imagine that men found me in my night dress and in my bedroom,” she said.
The soldiers and JATT team surrounded Kivumbi’s home at around midnight by scaling over neighbours’ perimeter walls. Security anticipated that Kivumbi could flee and opted to ensure any route he could take was sealed before they gained entry.