CID director assigns team to probe Kasubi women murders

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Grace Akullo, the Director of Criminal Investigations, has assigned a homicide team to probe last week’s three separate murders of women in Kasubi, Lubaga Division, in Kampala.

Three bodies of unidentified women were burnt on three separate days adjacent to  Kasubi royal tombs, causing panic among leaders and locals.

The first woman was discovered burnt beyond recognition on March 12. It was only the left leg and arm that were found as remaining parts of the deceased. Superintendent of Police, Edrisa Kyeyune, who is also the Old Kampala police commander and his team commenced investigations into the shocking murder.

However, police and locals were surprised when another woman’s body was found burning almost at the same spot on the following day which was March 13th. Stephen Nsereko, the local council chairman alerted police and just like the first body he could not tell whether it was one of his residents.

The second incident forced police to retrieve all images captured by Closed Circuit Television –CCTV from midnight to morning hours. The CCTVs captured one vehicle passing near the area minutes before the body was seen burning.

Police successfully tracked the driver and arrested him. His name has so far been kept secret in order not to alert his would be accomplices. But to police’s shock, a third woman was discovered burnt beyond recognition on March 14th.

Nsereko and his Vice Chairperson, Annet Namukasa, rushed to call upon security agencies to deploy heavily in the area to deter re-occurrence of the same heinous women murders. SP Kyeyune has since intensified night foot and motorized patrols alongside Local Defence Units-LDUs in Kasubi, Nakulabye and Nabulagala areas.

Akullo demanded for a preliminary report which was tabled to her. She has since directed the acting commissioner homicide, SP Monday Agaba, to work alongside KMP detectives to identify the culprits.

CID Spokesperson, ASP Charles Twine, has since revealed that remains of the victims have been submitted to Government Analytical Laboratory purposely to understand what the mode of killing was and what substance was used to burn their bodies.

“These bodies were burnt. There was a substance used to ignite the fire. We took the debris to DGAL and we haven’t got the report. Postmortem was done and at least it was conclusively established that cause of death was not fire,” ASP Twine said.

Nsereko and Namukisa by yesterday had not received any person from their neighbour claiming their person was missing. This has made them suspect that the victims were perhaps killed from another place, dumped at the scene and then set ablaze.

Police have also not received anyone coming to claim the remains of the victims. Twine said the victims’ DNA samples will be kept purposely for future identification in case relatives finally show up.

Kasubi locals suspects the victims could have been prostitutes killed in nearby lodges and burnt to kill evidence. 

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