Anger, confusion over death of LC5 chairman

Residents of Kayunga District are still in shock and confusion over circumstances that might have led to the death of their newly elected district chairperson.

The body of Muhammad Ffeffekka Sserubogo was found hanging from a tree at his home in Kyebanja Village, Kayunga Sub-county, yesterday morning.

Residents thronged the village yesterday as news of Sserobogo’s alleged suicide spread across the country. Enraged residents claimed that their chairperson, a member of National Unity Platform (NUP) party headed by former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine,  was killed before his body was hang on a tree.

The residents, however, did not name the killers and the motive. Kyebanja Village is about six kilometres from Kayunga Town.

According to Ms Vyonne Kyomuhendo, the acting district police commander, Sserubogo’s body was discovered by his brother, Mr Bumaali Kasozi, at around 7am.

“I was going to the garden with my 11-year old son, when I saw Sserubogo’s body hanging on a rope and I made an alarm,” Mr Bumaali said. 

Mr Bumaali stays in the same house with the deceased.

“We had dinner together and he retired to his bedroom. In the morning, I woke up and just went to the garden only to find his body hanging on a rope on jackfruit tree,” Mr Bumaali said.

The jackfruit tree is about 70 metres from the house.

At the scene of crime, police found Sserubogo’s pair of open shoes. He was wearing an Islamic attire - the kanzu (tunic)- but there was no any evidence of struggle to remove the rope from his neck before he died.

Mr Bumaali’s wife, Ms Hadijja Nalumaga, said the deceased usually returned home at around 6pm.
“He usually returned home being chauffeured in his official district vehicle at around 6pm, but this time he came back a bit late at 8pm and we had dinner. He did not look like he had any problem,” Ms Nalumaga said.

A combined force of police and UPDF cordoned off the scene to control the charged crowd that was shouting “our chairman has been killed.”

“We call for calm. The body is going to be taken to Mulago for postmortem to verify how our chairman has died,”  Ms Kyomuhendo, the acting Kayunga DPC,  told the residents.

But the crowd that had turned rowdy dismissed her remarks, saying they no longer trust police investigations.

“Sserubogo had for long toiled in politics in vain, how he can commit suicide at a time when he had just got into such a big office? This is unbelievable,” Mr Hakeem Ntuuyo, a member of NUP, shouted as police investigators combed the scene.
Sserubogo, 52, won the seat in January polls on NUP ticket, becoming the first Opposition politician to head the district.

“We have many questions over his death. Sserubogo has toiled to make it in life and it is sad that less than a month in office, he is dead,” Mr Bakaluba Mukasa, the Mukono District chairperson, who visited the scene of  crime, said amid tears. 

As the body was being carried to a waiting police vehicle, youth chanted Bobi Wine’s song “Tuliyambala engule…” as the police tried to restrain them from blocking the investigators. Narrating Mr Sserubogo’s last moments during a Covid-19 district taskforce meeting held at the district headquarters on Tuesday, the RDC, Mr Elijah Madoi, said  Sserubogo throughout the meeting looked embroiled in deep thoughts.

“He held his chin in his hand and when I asked him to take a front seat during the meeting, he declined and sat behind,” Mr Madoi said.

The Kyebanja Village chairperson, Ms Dorothy Namuyaba, said Sserubogo had told her of his plan to transform the area. Sserubogo is also a former member of the Mengo Lukiiko.