DNA row: Family of woman killed by Israeli national speaks out

New information has emerged about the woman who was killed by her lover at Kalagala Village, Kayabwe Town Council, Mpigi District last week.

Raed Wated, 58, a resident of Kalagala Village in Kayabwe Town Council, Mpigi District, reportedly suspected Monica Nabukenya,25, of infidelity which prompted him to take their 6-month-old baby girl for a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test.

According to police, Wated first reported a case of disappearance of Nabukenya on July 16, 2023, which detectives believe was intended to divert investigations.

However, the police forced him to lead them to his home, and on their arrival, they were hit by a stench of a decomposing body. They searched and found it in a septic tank. After questioning, he admitted to killing his wife because of the negative DNA test results for their six-month daughter.

On Wednesday, Wated recorded an extra-judicial statement at Mpigi Chief Magistrates Court after confessing that he had actually committed the crime.

Relatives reveal that Nabukenya had openly informed the husband that he is not the biological father of the baby and she had opted for divorce.

“For a long time, my sister was living under terror, her husband was treating her like a slave, and he never allowed her to chat on social media with any of her relatives and friends. She had even applied for divorce, but the man refused to sign the divorce papers,” Ms Christine Muhwezi, a sister of the deceased, said in an interview on Wednesday.

The couple had lived together for close to a decade.

Mr Loyce Nayiga, another sister, said she actually knows the biological father of the baby.  “I know where he [father of the baby] stays and what he does for a living,” she said.

Ms Nayiga revealed that when the couple got into misunderstandings, the deceased went back to her parents’ home in Katoma-Kyanjovu Village, Lwengo District together with her baby, but on July 11, Wated went and convinced her parents that he needed her back home to take care of him since “he was feeling unwell.”

“On July 7 this year, when the deceased was in our village, she received a phone call from her husband asking her to return to their home in Kayabwe, but she declined to go back until the man came on July 11 and picked her,” she said.

Prior to her gruesome murder, Nayiga said her sister had just sold her plot of land in Namayumba, Wakiso District at Shs7m and had planned to use the money to restock her supermarket in Kayabwe Town.

“Also, before the fallout,  the deceased had started helping Wated secure Ugandan citizenship which had not succeeded by the time proof came out that he wasn't the father of the baby,” she said.

Ms Scovia Kyomugisha, the deceased’s mother, said when her son-in-law came to pick up Nabukenya last week, she had refused to allow her to return following numerous complaints she had received about him.

“He sweet-talked me that he had reformed and promised to come back in August this year for both an official traditional ceremony [kwanjula] and later organise a wedding for my daughter. I didn’t know that all these were plain lies, his intention was to kill her,” he said.

Mr Dauda Hirigi Were, the Katonga Regional police commander said Wated will possibly appear before court tomorrow, Friday.

“We don’t need much evidence since he already confessed.  We are just waiting for the postmortem report and the suspect will be arraigned in court to face trial,” he said.

Compiled by Gertrude Mutyaba, Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa & Brian Adams Kesiima

[email protected]