Katanga son opposes inquest into dad’s death

A son of slain city businessman, Henry Katanga, has opposed an application filed in court by some members of his extended family, seeking an inquest into his murder.

Mr Arthur Katanga, through the law firm of Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), has filed an affidavit in reply to the inquest application, averring that the two individuals don’t have power of attorney to institute such a cause on behalf of their family.

Katanga, a wealthy Kampala businessman, was reportedly found dead with a gunshot wound to the head at his residence in Mbuya, Kampala on November 2. On the same day, his wife, Molly, was admitted into the intensive care unit of a medical facility in Kampala, where she remains to-date.

His widow has since been charged with murder of her late husband.

In an application filed in the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala on November 16, the deceased’s uncle, Brig Freddie Karara Machwa and brother-in-law Barnabas Taremwa, raised more than half-a-dozen grounds to be considered by court for judicial inquiry.

But the surviving Mr Katanga says in his affidavit that the inquest application is fatally defective, bad in law and ought to be dismissed by court.

“The second applicant (Mr Taremwa) has not sworn any affidavit or provided any power of attorney to depone as alleged or at all and I’m not sure if his name is just being used to bolster this application,” reads the affidavit dated November 21, adding: “The current applicants (Mr Taremwa and Mr Karara) have no locus to institute the current application under the provisions of the Inquest Act.”

It remains unclear whether the inquest application will be heard at all after a lawyer for the applicants yesterday said they have instructions to drop the matter.

Mr Frank Kanduho told Daily Monitor last evening that, “we have been instructed to withdraw it but we haven’t yet done so”.  He did not say who issued the instructions though.

Further in his affidavit, the younger Katanga says the application for an inquest was not properly filed.

“The application has been filed before a wrong division of the High Court and the same ought to have been filed before the Criminal Division,” he states.

“The application was filled prematurely… since the investigations into the death are still ongoing. The affidavit in support of the application is riddled with hearsay evidence to which none of the applicants can directly testify,” he adds.

An inquest is a judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of a person.

Also in his affidavit, there is an account of how the family home is now under the control of police.

He says ever since the death of his father, the police have taken over the management of their Mbuya home which they have locked, only opening it when they need things from there that they deem relevant to the ongoing investigations.

Also included in his affidavit are references to how his mother was admitted to the hospital formerly known as IHK where she has undergone three surgeries to save her life, and that she has since been examined by the police surgeon as part of the investigations.

“On November 16, we requested and obtained from IHK hospital reports of my mother’s condition when she went to the hospital on the 2nd November 2023. We have obtained my mother’s x-rays and photographs from IHK. The photos show the state of her head completely smashed up,” he avers.

He adds: “They show the state of her head after stitches were put on. They show x-rays of her hands. They show the transition of her finger and how they tried to save it by holding it with metals and they finally show amputation.”

He warns that the inquest application is intended to rip their family apart.

“I know that this application (inquest) will serve no useful purpose except trying to bring deeper wounds, more trauma and pain to our family just as we try to pick up pieces of this very personal tragedy that we face,” he says, adding: “The application further seeks to embarrass a number of people who attended my father’s funeral with a sole purpose of making them shun the orphans and family of the late Henry Katanga and to further make a media circus and theatre of the tragedy which befell our family.”

He also refuted the allegations made in inquest application that his mother and one of his sisters, jumped over the body of his father as they went to IHK.

Sisters also charged

The affidavit comes at the time when, two of the younger Katanga’s sisters; Patricia Katanga Kakwanza and Martha Katanga Nkwanzi were, on Tuesday this week, charged with destroying evidence related to the murder at Nakawa Chief Magistrates’ Court.

Nkwanzi is yet to appear physically in court and plead to the charges, having given birth a few days ago and was therefore reportedly not in a position to attend the arraignment.

Criminal summons have since been issued for Molly and Ms Nkwanzi, demanding that they appear in court on the same day.

Expected

A nursing officer, Charles Otai and a shamba boy, George Amanyire, who were charged with being accessories after the fact in the murder, are expected again in court on December 4.