Police constable shoots two residents after disagreement with woman

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A police constable attached to the Environmental Police Protection Unit opened fire, injuring two people following an altercation with a woman in Kawanda, Wakiso district.

The Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire identified the suspect as Police constable Julius Nagaba, who was guarding SGS offices in Kawanda.

Nagaba was involved in an altercation with Catherine Twongilwe, a resident of Watuba who was supplying food at the SGS offices on Monday afternoon.

Detectives from Kawempe police station who visited the scene say that during the altercation, Nagaba discharged a bullet that injured Dan Kibuka and Joseph Ssemanda who responded to the alarm made by Twongire inside the premises.

The two victims were rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital in critical condition. The detectives disarmed the constable and shielded him from angry members of the public who had started assaulting him.

In her statement, Twongilwe informed police that trouble started after she rejected Nagaba’s sexual advances.

“The lady says that our officer has been asking her for a relationship, which she rejected. So today, when she brought food, he decided to lock her inside his booth at the gate and she made an alarm that attracted people in the neighbourhood to come to her rescue. The constable opened fire and injured people,” Owoyesigire said.

Owoyesigyire noted that they have recovered the gun from the scene and they are currently waiting for Nagaba to recover so that he can record a statement as investigations continue to ascertain what happened.

Several security officers have in the past shot people over sour relationships. In 2013, Pte Patrick Odongo attached to Mbuya army headquarters shot three people dead including his lover.

In December 2012, Lance Cpl Herbert Rwakihembo, attached to the Military Police shot dead his fiancée, Irene Namuyaba and two others at Luzira, a Kampala suburb.

He was sentenced to 30 years in jail but later appealed and won the case and was freed. In March 2013, Pte Patrick Okot Odoch shot dead 10 people, including five soldiers at Bombo township after disagreeing with a lover in a bar.

He was later arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to 90 years in jail for the shooting.

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