Widow, friend hacked over land

Ms Madinah Nanyonjo shows off cuts she sustained on her hands, head and back at Iganga Hospital on January 22, 2018. PHOTOS BY YAZID YOLISIGIRA

What you need to know:

  • Mr Abdu Bageya, the District Councilor for Buyanga Sub-county, condemned what he referred to a ‘barbaric act’ and vowed to help the police in their pursuit and arrest of the suspects.

Police in Iganga District are hunting for assailants who hacked a 50-year-old widow and her friend with a machete over land.
Madinah Nanyonjo and her friend, Jenipher Mutesi, both residents of Bubone Village in Buyanga Sub-county, were reportedly attacked on Sunday by machete-wielding assailants at about 8:00pm and repeatedly cut on the head, hands and in the back before being rushed to Iganga Hospital.

While narrating her ordeal to this reporter from her hospital bed on Monday, Nanyonjo said her attackers were two village men who have been working with her Stepchildren to fight her over land.
The assailants, who were reportedly dressed in camouflage clothing, immediately fled the scene.
Ms Nanyonjo added that before her husband, Swaibu Kaboni died ten years ago, he had made a Will in which he bequeathed his two-acre piece of land to his children.

Ms Jenipher Mutesi shows a caretaker the injuries she sustained on her head in Iganga Hospital

“In the will, the deceased gave me part of the land on which the house sits, but since I didn’t produce any child, my Stepchildren started chasing me away in order to take the land,” Nanyonjo said.
Adding: “The Stepchildren have been threatening to kill me. All of them (children) were given their share and the land on which our house sits was given to me; but they vowed to chase me away.”
The police publicist for Busoga East region, James Mubi, said investigations into the case had commenced though their main preoccupation was to hunt down the still elusive perpetrators.
Mr Mubi asked locals to always refer their conflicts to authorities for redress instead of taking the law into their hands.

Mr Abdu Bageya, the District Councilor for Buyanga Sub-county, condemned what he referred to a ‘barbaric act’ and vowed to help the police in their pursuit and arrest of the suspects.
The LCIII Chairman Buyanga Sub-county, Paul Kibedi, conceded that cases of land grabbing especially from widows and orphans were high in the area and asked stakeholders to step in and sensitize locals on the Land Act.