Lwakataka case: Boy narrates killing

MASAKA. A witness on Monday told Masaka High Court how he escaped death in a gruesome murder that claimed his parents and seven other members of the family.
Court this week officially started trying the suspects in the controversial murder case of nine members, all belonging to the family of the late Pastor Stephen Mugambe, of Kyebe Pentecostal Church which occurred in 2013 at Kannabulemu village, Rakai District.
Rally driver Ponsiano Lwakataka, Vincent Fengasi, a Tanzanian national, and Emmanuel Zzinda were presented as the accused.
Mr Peter Ssemalemba, the State Attorney, told court presided over by Justice John Keitirima that they had obtained evidence from investigations that pinned the accused persons to the murder.
In the evidence adduced by Dr William Mutumba, a consultant pathologist at the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, and Mr Twaha Ssemanda, a police detective, the two concurred that the deceased persons were murdered.
Pastor Mugambe’s 16 -year- old biological son, who survived the murder with a minor cut on his forehead, testified in court that his grandmother (Maria Namatovu) with whom he had shared a room, woke him up after hearing screams outside. “Because my uncle who had visited us had slept in a car outside, my grandmother was quick to suspect that something wrong was happening and that we should find out,” he said.
However, as he tried to trace for his shirt and get out, an unidentified person cut him with a sharp object on the head and he fell down unconscious.
Asked whether he also witnessed his other relatives being hacked, the witness could not hold his tears back raising emotions in the fully-packed courtroom.
The sobbing boy said he could not follow any other events and that he doesn’t remember hearing his grandmother’s voice again as he became unconscious. The killing of the family was a story reported to him by an uncle.
“Moments later, I heard a car drive away and it is at this moment that I wailed for help,” he added, narrating how his younger sister rushed to their uncle’s home in the neighbourhood who rushed the casualty to a clinic.
Mr Ssemalemba prayed that court rely on an earlier confession by Asuman Muddu (already convicted). Muddu confessed that he had physically taken part in this particular murder together with the three accused.
However, a team of five defence lawyers led by Mr Hassan Kamba objected to The State Attorney’s plea, arguing that the confession was a fabrication. Kamba told court: The confession was made to incriminate the accused with intensions of obtaining wealth. The case was adjourned until August 13 .

The case
On January 13, 2013, unknown assailants drilled a hole into a house, attacked and killed Pastor Mugambe, his wife Noeline Nalinya, his mother Maria Namatovu and six other family members, and it is alleged that rally driver and businessman Possiano Lwakataka hired the assailants.

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