How son who killed mother was tracked

Peter Musaasizi walked to his mother’s bedroom as his new wife stayed outside to keep watch. He then speared her through the breast. ILLUSTRATIONS BY Alex Kwizera

What you need to know:

Musaasizi seemed to have been joyed by his mother’s departure. He now had a big chunk of land to himself, and could sell it at will. After selling several pieces of the land, he married again

Josephine Nalubega, 80, lived true to the cliché “there is nothing greater than a mother’s love”. Fifty eight years ago, Nalubega gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. The child was named Peter Musaasizi.

The pious Nalubega treasured and loved her son. Even when her marriage hit the rocks four decades ago, she walked away but not without her son.

Life was hard. However, she kept pushing on and believing one day her son would turn into her life insurance.

Life got harder each day that went by. She had no hope of winning the battle single handedly so she retreated to her parents’ home in Lwangoma village, Kakoma Parish, Kyazanga Sub-county in Lwengo District.

Although it is not culturally right for a married woman to return to her parents’ home after a failed marriage, Nalubega had no choice but to seek the support of her family. Fortunately, they welcomed her.

A few years after she had settled in, Nalubega’s parents died leaving her as the administrator of an estate with a big chunck of land. Nalubega gave part of this land to her son.

However, Musaasizi was not content with the offer; he yearned for more. His desire for more was so great that he could do anything, including taking his mother’s life, to quench it.

Soon Musaasizi started showing his true colours. In early 1990s, he sold part of the land his mother had entrusted him with. School fees and debts were his excuse.

Sophy Neboshi, the Lwengo District Police crime officer who followed up the case, says Nalubega got mad about the land issue but got over it.
She thought the incident would not reoccur, but it did. “He continued selling more land stretching his mother’s impatience to its limits. She suspected his son’s poor decisions could be from a bad influence of his wife. Like in many African families, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law never got along,” Neboshi says.

When his wife died in the late 90s, Musaasizi accused his mother of bewitching his wife. Nalubega was afraid Musaasizi would harm her so she sought refuge at her marital home.

Musaasizi seemed to have been joyed by his mother’s departure. He now had a big chunk of land to himself, and could sell it at will. After selling several pieces of the land, he married again.

Advancing in age, Nalubega could not cope with life at her marital home. So, in 2000, she returned to her land after she and her son agreed to reconcile.

“Her house was in ruins. So she ended up in the boy’s quarters,” Neboshi says.

Although Nalubega had reconciled with her son, she did not approve of the way her land was managed. She tried to reclaim the estate from her son in vain.

Musaasizi and his wife performed a ritual ostensibly to keep Nalubega’s spirit at bay

Musaasizi started threatening his 80-year-old mother. She was so afraid that she run to the LCI chairperson to find a solution.
Around September 2014, Nalubega tried to reach a compromise with her son again.

“She said the land should remain in the names of her grandchildren, who are Musaasizi’s children since she had aged. Musaasizi refused insisting he had powers to manage his mother’s land,” the officer says.

“It was at that point that she told him if he didn’t want to abide by her property rules, he should leave the estate,” the officer explains.
The LC meeting recorded the statement but thought the two would reconcile when they got back home. They did not.

A month later, on October 19, 2014, Musaasizi bought a sack and rope from a nearby shop.
Neboshi says at around 11pm, while Nalubega was asleep, Musaasizi, broke into her bedroom to ask if she was serious about her decision to kick him out of her land. The old woman stood her ground and threatened to raise an alarm if he continued bothering her.

When Nalubega fell asleep, he came back with a spear, unlocked the door as his new wife Mauricia Nakate, 29, stayed outside to keep watch, just in case somebody showed up. He walked to his mother’s bedroom.

“He speared her around the breast rapturing the internal organs. He didn’t give her time to raise an alarm; he held her mouth,” Neboshi says.

After killing Nalubega, with Nakate’s help, Musaasizi tied his mother’s mouth with a cloth, and put the body in a sack.

“Tying a cloth around his mother’s mouth was a ritual done to prevent her spirit from revealing their names through dreams,” Neboshi says.
In some cultures in the central region, it is believed if a person has been killed and buried in unmarked grave, he or she is able to reveal their murderer’s names to relatives through dreams. So to keep their secret, they tie the corpse’s mouth.

After they ensured their secret was “concealed”, Musaasizi and his wife buried the old woman’s body and covered it with earth.
Afraid that Nalubega’s spirits would avenge her death, the couple slaughtered a cock and sprinkled blood on the earth that was heaped on her body.

They later cleaned up Nalubega’s room, leaving no trace of the crime.

The discovery
However, one thing the couple could not erase was the memory of Nalubega’s evening routine. She always sat on a veranda opposite the road from where she greeted passers-by.

“When people didn’t see her, they thought she was ill. So one by one, they paid a visit to see if she was well only to be told that she was away for a visit and would come back shortly,” Neboshi recalls the neighbours’ narration.

Residents became suspicious because it was uncommon for Nalubega to walk away without informing them and the local council members about her intention to travel. Their suspicion grew into fear.

The next day, the Lwangoma LCI chairman and a group of villagers visited Musaasizi’s home for to confirm Nalubega was not at home. Musaasizi insisted she had gone on a visit.

The residents embarked on a search around the house, and in the banana plantation. When Musaasizi realised the search team was drawing closer to where he had buried his mother, he rushed to his house, packed some of his belongs, including building equipment, and fled the village.

Villagers landed on chicken feathers and blood around a freshly dug spot. When they dug deeper, a foul smell filled the air. Police were called in. The villagers’ fears were confirmed; Nalubega was dead. News of her death spread.
Angry residents looked for Musaasizi to lynch him, in vain.

The crime officer says they suspected the mob would turn to his wife so police detained her as a preventive measure.

“We interrogated her about the homicide case but she feigned ignorance. She said she didn’t even know where her husband had gone,” Neboshi says.

Financially constrained

Police arrests Musaasizi.


Musaasizi wasn’t prepared for a long hiding. He was financially constrained and his health failed him. Malaria had weakened his body.
Two days later, he went to a health centre in Malongo, Lwengo District, to get treatment.

As he queued up with other patients, a resident of Kyangoma spotted him and alerted the police.

Although the police officers arrived after he had left the health centre, they were sure Musaasizi was living within the vicinities.
They found out he was looking for a job at a building site and had left his contact behind in case an offer came up.

“One of our detectives called him for a job. He came running and he was arrested,” the officer says.

At Lwengo Police Station, his narration of what happened to his mother did not add up. Police pressed him further and he gave in.

“He admitted to having killed his mother and giving reasons why. His wife who had long denied knowledge of the crime was shocked by what we knew. She also cooperated and gave us more information which we used to piece up the case,” Neboshi adds.

He told the police where he had kept the spear used to kill his mother, and the blood-stained clothes.

On October 22, 2014, Musaasizi recorded an extrajudicial statement with Grade II Magistrate, Michael Nasimolo in which he confessed to the crime.
Both Musaasizi and the wife were charged with murder.

Domestic violence

At least 315 people are killed in domestic violence in Uganda; 159 of whom are female adults, according to the 2013 police crime report.

The report indicates property ownership is one of the causes of the killings.
Grace Akullo, the director of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence, says most aggravated domestic violence cases can be reduced if police intensify intelligence at village levels.

“The motives behind such killings are often land wrangles, dissatisfaction with delayed justice or omission of it, family misunderstandings and business rivalry. These can be detected if our intelligence are picking information and work on it before it turns into a crime,” Akullo says.
In the Lwengo incident, if the police had worked well with the local council members, the situation would have been different.

Most of these cases are registered in hard-to-reach areas where the police and local councils still have minimum manpower.

“Police should step up community policing and awareness. Other stakeholders such as community development officers should provide programmes and projects that can strengthen family values at the lowest levels,” Akullo says.

However, it is not only females who are killed in domestic violence cases, men too fall victim.
In the crime report, at least, 147 were male adults, 36 were male juveniles and 18 were female juveniles.
[Andrew Bagala]