Kaweesi murder suspect’s family evicted over rent
Ahmed Senfuka’s family that was evicted three weeks ago and now lives at his father’s home. PHOTO BY JESSICA SABANO
MUKONO- The once happy 14- member family of Ahmed Senfuka, one of the 12 suspects accused of murdering former police spokesperson, Andrew Kaweesi, has been evicted.
The eviction from a two-bedroom house that Senfuka was renting in Seeta –Namanga township, Mukono District, recently, has since forced the wife and the children to endure life in a small room at the home of Senfuka’s father, Mr Shaban Kasule.
The family survives on handouts from Good Samaritans.
Although Senfuka was granted bail together with three other suspects by Nakawa Grade One Magistrate Noah Sajjabi early this month, they were brutally rearrested by plain-clothed operatives and taken to Nalufenya, a detention facility in Jinja town.
It is allged that the suspects were rearrested on a suspicion that they are members of Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel outfit based in DR Congo.
“Before my son’s arrest and incarceration, I was looking after 18 dependents. Now, I have added 14 more from Senfuka, who are helpless,” Mr Kasule said last Saturday.
Although this extended family lives in a rural setting, Mr Kasule lacks land where to cultivate enough food to feed the entire family.
Previously, he says, Senfuka could earn a salary from Green Stay Primary School where he was working as a teacher as well as hiring farm land to grow food for both families.
“By the time Senfuka was arrested, he had three wives and 13 children and was the sole bread winner. Two of his wives left because they could not afford paying rent where they were staying and left the children with me. One wife stayed behind, but the landlord evicted her and we now live together,” he explains.
He says Senfuka’s 13 children dropped out of school in the first term.
Together with his wife Ms Salama Nalwada, he believes that his son is innocent.
“Senfuka was a good person and as far as I know, he could not have got involved in unlawful acts,” he says.
Ms Jamila Nakimuli, 24, one of Senfuka’s three wives, says she was living a “happy” life before her husband was arrested.
“I have suffered for the months my husband has been in jail, sometimes children cry when I have nothing to give them, it is challenging to look after a big family like this one,” she says.
Ms Nakimuli says she got traumatised when she saw armed men re-arresting and torturing her husband.
“I could not believe what I saw on TV, it was so shocking, sometimes I ask myself whether there is rule of law in this country. My children usually ask where their father is and I frankly tell them that government took him,” she says.
She says she feels uncomfortable staying in the same house with her father-in-law, but has nothing to do.
