84-year-old man fights off two suspected thieves, kills one
Residents of Nangada Village, Kabuna Sub-County in the Eastern district of Budaka were left puzzled after an 84 year-old man reportedly fought and killed a suspected thief who had attacked him Monday evening at his home.
Two suspected thugs had reportedly attacked Mr Jaliwo Mulongo, with the aim of stealing his Shs 200,000 that he had received under the Social Assistance Grants Empowerment [SAGE] program.
SAGE is a government program that is meant to cater for the elderly persons from the age of 80 and above, and it’s being managed and implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
Mr Joseph Gadimba, publicity secretary of the local village council told Daily Monitor that two suspected thieves reportedly attacked the old man at around 8.30pm and hacked him with a machete but he (old man) managed to fight back.
The deceased has been identified as Keffa Kalajja, 26. He reportedly sustained deep cuts on the forehead and neck while his colleague managed to escape from the scene.
“These two thugs waylaid the old man as he entered his house to rest and took this advantage to also sneak into the house and started torturing the old man by cutting him but unfortunately the old man also got courage and also cut one of the thugs who sustained serious deep cuts and died,” Mr Gadimba said.
Mr Gadimba further explained that the old man sustained serious cuts on the back and the neck and is currently admitted at Budaka Health Centre IV. The Elderly persons had just been paid their money under SAGE program.
The LC1 chairperson for Nangada village, Mr Francis Mboizi, condemned the act of the youth who he said have failed to work and only want to engage in criminality in the area.
“As leaders, we shall not entertain such criminality being committed by these youth because many youth don’t want to work but wish to engage in theft. I wish to sound a warning to the youth to desist from such acts,” he said
The Kabuna LC3 chairperson, Mr David Pera, said cases of theft are taking an unprecedented toll in the sub county lately having been peaceful.
“These acts of death could be avoided if these energetic youth could engage themselves into viable enterprises than resorting to stealing. Just imagine being killed at the age of 26 years. This is quite unfortunate and regrettable,” he said.
Mr Pera further cautioned the community to embrace neighbourhood watch, in order to scale down criminality in the area.
“We shouldn’t leave the fight to only the police alone. The most disturbing thing is for this young man to plan to steal the old man’s money. People don’t have mercy at all,” he said.
Police say they are investigating the matter.Police explained that the body of Kalajja has been taken to Budaka mortuary for postmortem before it could be handed over to the family for burial arrangements.
“We have launched an investigation to establish the cause of death of this man and the attack on the old man. We cannot rule out foul but this will be ascertained in our investigations,” one of the police officers said.
