Catholic priest was killed by gang - police
Banakarooli Brothers in Kiteredde view the body of Brother Emmanuel Mugarura
KAMPALA- Details emerging from police investigations show Mr Robert Asiimwe arrested for the murder of a Catholic cleric Brother Emmanuel Mugarura did not act alone.
Brother Mugarura, the superior general of Banakarooli Brothers in Kiteredde near Masaka, was murdered on Wednesday in Banda suburb, Kampala.
The suspect Asiimwe was initially said to be a Kyambogo University student, but later the university disowned him.
Police findings suggest that the killers targeted the Catholic prelate to take his car. Detectives found that Mr Asiimwe went to Rubaga Catholic Social Centre where Brother Mugarura had parked his vehicle and asked the caretaker to hand over the car to him, claiming the deceased had sent him to pick it.
“The suspect told the caretaker that the owner would call her and the lady received a call from the brother’s number, with a lady’s voice claiming the brother had sent him (Mr Asiimwe) to pick the vehicle. The caretaker refused to release the car insisting the owner of the car, first comes,” the Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, said in a statement yesterday.
The caretaker later chased away Mr Asiimwe.
“It’s an indicator that the suspect was not alone in the commission of the offence,” Mr Owoyesigyire added.
He said subsequently, the lady informed her supervisor and they started looking for Mugarura. “One Catholic brother went to Rubaga police to make a report of a missing person only to be informed that Jinja Road Police had reported that he had been murdered,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
Suspect speaks
Upon arrest, Mr Asiimwe claimed he murdered Brother Mugarura because he was sexually molesting him.
When asked whether police subjected Asiimwe to a medical examination to verify his claims, Mr Owoyesigyire declined to disclose.
The local council chairperson of Banda Zone 9, Nakawa Division in Kampala, Mr Charles Lwanga Osia, said after the news of the murder, he was called by police to Asiimwe’s single room and he found the deceased’s body lying on the floor.
“After killing him, he dressed him in two bags, one from the side of the head and the other from the legs. He then wrapped the body in a mattress polythene bag before rolling it in a blue tarpaulin,” Mr Osia said.
