After winding up with morning work on his farm, Dawson Wambi Ndokero, 70, a local tycoon would retire to his home in Nsinze village-Nsinze Sub-county in Namutumba District.
However, this routine work schedule tragically ended on October 20, 2012. On that fateful day, Wambi did not know that it was his last day.
At 3pm Wambi received a phone call from one of his sons in the capital, Kampala that neighbours were grazing their cattle on his farm. The son had been tipped on telephone by one of the neighbours to the farm in the village. He in turn informed his father to go and check at the farm, which is about 5km from the family home.
The neighbours had turned it into a habit to graze their animals on Wambi’s farm yet he had restricted access to the land. The decision made him a target of those who wanted to graze their animals on his farm.
Upon receiving the call from the son, Wambi immediately sent his two grandsons to the farm to find out.
The grandsons Richard Malingha, 20, and Mr Robert Bunafa, 18, went and found a cattle keeper, one Paul Magala, indeed grazing his animals on their farm.
They asked him to leave and warned him against grazing his cattle on the farm again. Magala refused to leave the farm. The two grandsons grabbed one cow. They wanted to impound it as an exhibit.
Magala reacted and a scuffle ensued. In the process of struggling, the defiant cattle keeper Magala collapsed and died on the spot.
Dazed with fear, the boys rushed back home but never reported the matter to either their grandfather or the Local Council officials.
A local resident who was watching the scuffle between the cattle keeper and the two boys from a distance ran and informed the children of the deceased.
The children rushed to the scene and found their father lifeless. They had also earlier seen Wambi’s two grandsons coming back from their grandfather’s farm.
They made an alarm, which attracted the residents and relatives of the deceased to the scene. They started planning a revenge attack on Wambi’s home. It was now approaching 5pm.
The mob struck the home. On realising danger, Wambi fled to one of his neighbour’s house for his safety. The angry mob first attacked one of Wambi’s grandsons whom they suspected of involvement in Magala’s killing.
They killed Malingha, one of the grandsons, and later killed Wambi whom they tracked to his hiding place in the neighbour’s house.
Police were not aware about the violence until one of Wambi’s grandsons, Bunafa escaped and reported to Nsinze Police Post.
The officer in charge of Nsinze Police Post, Mr Tom Beinomugisha, responded and rushed to Wambi’s home to stop escalation of the bloodshed.
But it was too late. Three people had already been killed. Police opened investigations under Criminal Record Book Ref. No 1130A/2012.
The case of murder was registered at Namutumba Central Police Station.
Police later took the three bodies to Iganga hospital mortuary for postmortem.
Police later handed over the bodies to the relatives for burial.
Wambi and his grandson had deep wounds on their bodies.
Mr Beinomugisha assigned Detective Joseph Oboth, the then district Criminal Investigations Department officer, to handle the investigations and bring the culprits to book.
Mr Oboth and his team of detectives visited the scene.
They carried a search at the scene for possible exhibits. A sketch map of the scene was drawn. Statements were recorded from eyewitnesses.
On November 1, 2012 at 3pm some suspects were arrested and taken to Namutumba Central Police Station.
Police started with arrest of people suspected to have killed Wambi and his grandson. Their statements were recorded. The suspects were presented at an identification parade on November 3, 2012 at 9 am at Namutumba Police Station. Nine suspects were identified by eyewitnesses. They were charged with murder.
The suspects were: Mr Paul Kisule, Mr Gariku Isabirye, Mr Robert Luwalinza and Mr Richard Mukama.
Leave a Reply