UPDF officer’s son drowns in River Nile
Residents witness the retrieval Baale’s body from River Nile on Wednesday. PHOTO BY DENIS EDEMA
BUIKWE- Police in Jinja are not ruling out suicide in the death of a 25-year-old man whose body was found floating on River Nile on Christmas Day.
Frank Baale, who was an employee of Top Betting Company in Kampala was a son of Maj Alex Bwanika, who until recently, was attached to the UPDF Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Workshop, Magamaga.
Detectives say he could have committed suicide by jumping in the river.
Kiira Region Police spokesperson, Ms Diana Nandaula, on Thursday said that Baale left a suicide note saying he had failed to buy land and construct a house at 25.
Other unverified reports, however, suggest that Baale was given money to construct a house but ended up squandering it in sports betting parlours.
Mr Augustine Wandati, a fisherman at Njeru Landing Site said that Baale committed suicide on Sunday but his body was seen floating near Nalubale Bridge on Wednesday.
“He was seen moving around the bridge at about 11 pm on Sunday and by the time security personnel in charge of security at the bridge were alerted, he had already jumped in the water,” Mr Wandati said.
“I was fishing around that area when I saw someone falling in the water; I and other colleagues tried to search for him and we failed.”
Relatives who came to witness the retrieval of the body were overwhelmed by grief and declined to speak to journalists.
Sources familiar with the investigations on Thursday said the deceased travelled from Makerere-Kikoni in Kampala.
Police took the body to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital for a post-mortem before handing it over to relatives for burial in Lugazi.
