Woman rots in hospital 4 months after accident

Helpless. Ms Sumaya Nabalamba on her sick bed in Kiruddu Hospital, Kampala, last Thursday. PHOTO BY TOM MALABA

What you need to know:

  • Ms Nabalamba says they were knocked as they turned off Masaka Road on their way home.

A woman has alleged that the director of Wamala Mixed Secondary School in Mpigi, Mr Asaddu Wamala, who is now on remand on charges of aggravated defilement, knocked her with a car and left her with a broken pelvis and big wound on her buttocks.
Ms Sumaya Nabalamba, 28, said the tragedy befell her on October 10, 2019 and that she has since been admitted to Kiruddu Hospital in Munyonyo, Kampala.

“We were going home on a boda boda when Mr Wamala knocked us. The rider, Mohammed Kanakulya, died on spot. He ran over me with the rear tyre and dragged me on the tarmac for about 20 metres,” Ms Nabalamba narrated at the hospital bed last week.
She said a second passenger known as Maama Walila, who was seated in the middle, escaped with minor injuries. Ms Nabalamba added that they were knocked as they turned off Masaka Road at St Lawrence, London College, as they headed home.

“I overheard people crying that we had been knocked by Asaddu Wamala before we were rushed to Mulago for treatment,” she said.
Lying with her face down, a catheter running between her legs and a protruding intestine to pass out stool in her left side, Ms Nabalamba could hardly move or sit because of a gaping wound on her buttocks.
She was referred to Kiruddu to have the wound dressed.
“I spend most of the day and night lying like this. I cannot walk or sit,” she said at her bed on level four of the hospital.
Ms Nabalamba is kept near the window to get fresh air and is covered with a thin bed sheet.

By the time of the accident on October 10, 2019, she said she had been running a shop in Nsangi Trading Centre on Masaka Road. The shop has since closed.
After the accident, Ms Nabalamba was taken to Mulago Hospital but lack of medical attention forced her relatives to relocate her to St Stephen’s Hospital in Mpererwe to save her life. It was at St Stephen’s Hospital that she was operated to put out part of her intestine to pass stool. Her relatives took her for specialised treatment at Nsambya hospital but in two days, the medical bill had shot to Shs1.5m. She decided to seek medical care elsewhere.

From Nsambya, she was referred back to Mulago who also sent her to Kirudddu on December 29 to have the wound dressed.
Ms Fatuma Nanteza, her twin sister, said she contacted Mr Wamala to seek help for medical treatment but he chased her and challenged her to report him to police.
“We are still wondering where to get money. Right now doctors are saying they are going to discharge us but how do they discharge someone who cannot sit?” Ms Nanteza wondered.
Last Thursday, doctors at Kiruddu Hospital tried to get Ms Nabalamba to stand but she failed because she was too weak.

Police accused
Mr Joseph Kamoga, a resident of Nsangi who is pursuing justice for Ms Nabalamba, said some officers at Nsangi Police Station messed up the case.
He said the case was registered as TAR/43/2019/TSD but traffic police officers at the station made a report, showing that there were four cars all with initials of UAQ which were involved in that particular accident.
“Police said they did not know which of the four cars with UAQ series had knocked Nabalamba. Police at Nsangi claimed there was a boda boda rider who followed the car that caused the accident and saw a Mark II with UAQ,” Mr Kamoga said.

He added that police told him that it was not Mr Wamala who knocked the victim. Mr Kamoga claimed that officers at Katwe Police Station and Nsangi Police Station tried to cover up the crime by claiming that two silver grey TXs, one a UAQ 562K owned by Mr Wamala, and another silver grey, TX UAQ 526K, were involved in the accident. He dismissed the claims as a ploy to help the culprit evade justice.

Daily Monitor could not independently verify Ms Nabalamba’s claims or contact Mr Wamala for a response to the allegations as he is still in prison.
Mr Kamoga said after learning what had happened, he reported the case to State House who ordered a fresh investigation into the incident. Right now the file is with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Mr Mohammed Kanakulya, who was riding the knocked motorcycle, was a son of Hajj Sulah Sajjabi of Katereke in Nsangi. He was buried on October 11, 2019.