Pursue killers of Entebbe women

Last week, two women were killed by unidentified gangs in Entebbe and Masaka towns. In Nkumba, Bufulu, Katabi Town Council, the body of 35-year old Sarah Nakajjo Nakintu, was discovered in a bush with twigs inserted in her mouth and private parts.

In a similar incident in Masaka District, police recovered the body of a woman in her mid-20s suspected to have been raped before being killed. Her body was dumped on the roadside in Nyendo-Ssenyange Division.

These are the latest in a series of killings in recent months where some victims were reportedly raped before being killed. On July 24, Daily Monitor reported that residents of Nkumba Central, Wakiso District found the naked body of Rose Nakimuli, 27, with a stick inserted in her genitals. The body was found in a banana plantation.

Nakimuli’s killing came barely three days after a 17- year-old girl, Norah Wayana, was killed in the same manner and her body dumped in a banana plantation near her parent’s home in the same area. Other women killed in a similar way include Gorret Nansubuga, 19, whose body was found in a banana garden on June 7, about 10 metres from her home; and 31-year-old Faith Komugisha, whose body was found in a garden behind her house in Kitinda Village, Katabi Town Council on June 19.

Before June 7 when the first killing in Katabi Town Council was reported, four bodies of women in their 20s, suspected to have been raped and strangled had, a week earlier, been discovered at Kibulooka and Masitoowa zones in Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District.

These chilling killings raise serious security concerns. Last month, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gen Kale Kayihura, said criminals are terrorising people in Entebbe and the environs of Wakiso District because there is a lapse in security. The first step in resolving a problem is to identify the cause. Now that the IGP knows the cause of insecurity in the area, immediate steps must be taken to identify the culprits and restore security in affected areas.

While measures were put in place to check insecurity – a 10pm curfew in the area, a Mayumba Kumi (10 houses) concept where 10 houses are clustered to ensure people know each other in the neighbourhood and parents being barred from allowing children to leave for schools before 7am – cases of new killings are still being reported. This means additional security measures are urgently required. Police should work with the affected communities and spare no effort to bring the culprits to justice and safeguard the neighbourhoods.