Establish truth on DR Congo killing

Sad that their son is gone and with no hopes of seeing his corpse, Kyoghero’s family has already conducted burial rites back at home, although as one family member put it, they would love to know the circumstances under which their son died.

Mystery surrounds the reported death of four Ugandans in the Democratic Republic of Congo on New Year’s Day. According to this newspaper, in a story carried yesterday, the men led by Deogratius Kyoghero, a teacher at Bwera Secondary School in the border town of Kasese, were reportedly killed in eastern DRC and buried in a mass grave.

Local leaders led by the Kasese District chairman, Lt. Col. Mawa Muhindo, whereas confirm that the four were killed, they seem clueless as to what could have caused the deaths, with speculation ranging from the possibility that they were on a theft mission or had joined one of the many rebel factions in DR Congo.

Sad that their son is gone and with no hopes of seeing his corpse, Kyoghero’s family has already conducted burial rites back at home, although as one family member put it, they would love to know the circumstances under which their son died.

Eastern DRC has turned into a jungle of sorts, with no rule of law and people being swallowed and annihilated. However, every life should count. Political and security authorities in Kasese should go the extra mile and establish what exactly happened to the four Ugandans.

To begin with, it would be important to retrace their last moments before they left Uganda—and even with our border being porous—we must try to establish how they entered Congo.

We believe tracking telephone conversations and other leads could be of help. Looking at how much resources and time the police are dedicating to establish how Butaleja Woman MP Cerinah Nebanda died, and juxtaposing with the laissez-faire attitude the security authorities in Kasese responded to this matter, one would think we are talking about two different countries!

Just like the families of VIPs would love to know the truth when their dear ones die under suspicious circumstances, so would the families of ordinary Ugandans. It is the duty of the State to ensure this equity in justice prevails. We insist, get to the bottom of what happened to these four Ugandans in DRC.