Brenda called out to Jesus as she breathed her last – Gen Katumba

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Brenda Wamala Nantongo shouted the word Jesus as she breathed her last according to her father, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala.

The 32 year old Nantongo died on Tuesday in an attempted assassination on Kisoota road in Kisaasi. Nantongo who was traveling with her father to Nanjanankumbi to attend her grandmother’s vigil was shot several times after unknown assailants on boda bodas shot at the car she was traveling in. Nantongo and her father’s driver Haruna Kayondo died at the scene of the shooting.

While sharing the Tuesday morning events with fellow mourners on Wednesday evening, Gen. Katumba, with his left hand supported in a sling, revealed that his daughter was killed by some of the first bullets that penetrated through the car. He says Nantongo’s last words were those of faith.

The revelation was made by the general during a funeral service for Nantongo at his home in Najjera.

Katumba who under went surgery on Tuesday to remove the four bullets that had penetrated his body at Medipal International hospital arrived at his daughter’s funeral service at 5:00 pm. The service took place at his home located in Bulabira, Najjera II.

Speaking with vigor as he narrated his daughter’s last moments, it was easy for those present at his home to forget the moment he broke down after looking at the casket holding the remains of his child.

According to Katumba, the occupants of the car mistook the first bullet that they had to be a collision with a boda boda cyclist. He said his daughter shouted the word Jesus after they all realised that it was bullets and not an accident with boda boda.

According to Katumba, after Nantongo breathed her last, he opened the door and fell out before he asked his body guard, Sgt Kalid Koboyoit to get out of the car.

After getting out of the car, Sgt Koboyoit fired shots at the assassins that he says had come back to finish the job. he said Koboyoit’s fired shots scared them away and this gave the two surviving members of the car an opportunity to run and hide behind a house near the road. After ensuring that his boss was safe, Koboyoit left the general and went back to the scene of the shooting to make sure the assassins had not followed them to their hiding place.

With no sign of the assassins, Katumba got out of his hiding spot and walked back to the scene of the shooting where Nantongo was still laying in the car. Together with his guard, Katumba was taken to a near by health facility by a boda boda cylist before being transferred to Malcolm X.

Katumba says he was scared to sit on the bodaboda thinking the rider might be one of the assassins.

Katumba also thanked God for saving his life and his guard. He said Nantongo was his friend and the primary carer at home who planned their meals and looked after her parents when they fell ill. Katumba also thanked his bodyguard for fighting hard to save his life.

“I want to thank my body guard. Even if he was not able to injure any of the terrorists as we were seeing them, he did his best to ensure that my life is saved,” he said.

Speaking calmly like her husband, Catherine Wamala, Nantongo’s mother says when she had her daughter had died, she thought it had happened due to a car accident. Mrs Wamala revealed that losing her mother and daughter was so hard since she loved them both very much.

At the time of her death, Nantongo was working at Bombo Hospital. She was the forth child born to the Katumbas. She studied her primary school from Green Hill Academy before she went to secondary school at Nabisunsa Girls Secondary School. Thereafter she traveled to the U.S where she studied both her undergraduate and masters degree. She had a master’s degree in public health that she attained from Savannah Atlanta University.

Nantongo will be laid to rest today in Kikandwa kasaawo, Mukono.

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