Suspected offertory thief shot dead at Rubaga Cathedral

A security guard at Rubaga Cathedral has shot dead a man who was allegedly trying to steal offertory from the Church building on Thursday morning.

Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, Mr Patrick Onyango identified the man as William Otuke.

Otuke was reportedly part of a gang of machete-wielding men who raided the Cathedral at about 3 am on Thursday with the intention of stealing various valuables including offertory.

According to Mr Onyango, a guard who is attached to Securex Security Company released several bullets that killed Otuke, after realising that some strangers were trying to enter the church building.

Otuke’s accomplices escaped.
He said the guard has since recorded a statement about the incident at Old Kampala Police Station detailing what transpired.

Otuke’s body was taken to the City Mortuary.
Historical images and statutes that tell the history of Catholicism in Uganda are kept in the Cathedral that was built by the congregation of White fathers in 1914.

Saint Mary's Cathedral Rubaga, commonly referred to as Rubaga Cathedral, is the parent cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala and the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in Uganda
The raid on the Cathedral comes a month after thugs raided St Augustine Chapel at Makerere University and made off with offertory.

The Chaplain, Fr Josephat Ddungu released CCTV footage showing the thug breaking into the chapel on the night of August 12 around midnight and making off with an unspecified sum of money.
Other items that were stolen from include a laptop computer, extension cables, boxes where the offertory for Mother Mary and Radio Maria were being kept.

He asked members of the public to help identify the thief because he seemed to be familiar with the interior of the chapel and locations where valuables were kept.
The footage was shared with police.

Fr Ddungu said the Chapel administration could hardly tell how much money was being kept in the stolen offertory boxes.