Lugogo shooting: Bullet found in Akena’s body

KAMPALA- Doctors found a bullet stuck in the body of Kenneth Akena, who was shot at Game Stores at Lugogo on Saturday night.

The bullet was recovered during the postmortem at City Mortuary in Mulago. It was handed over to police investigators for forensic examination to establish the type of gun that was used in the murder.

Mr Matthew Kanyamunyu, the chief executive officer of Quantum Express Logistics, and his Burundian girlfriend, Ms Cynthia Munwangari, are still in detention in connection with the killing of Akena.
Police said Kanyamunyu was still insisting he did not shoot Akena but was a good samaritan who rushed the deceased to hospital after he had been shot by an unknown person opposite Kyadondo Rugby Club adjacent to Game Stores.
Yesterday, police detectives and scene of crime officers visited Wandegeya Police Station and examined the car which Kanyamunyu and his girlfriend used on the fateful day.

Police officers told the deceased’s relatives that preliminary investigations indicated that Akena was shot at close range with one bullet.
The detectives also revisited Game Stores to reconstruct the scene of crime. They took the suspects to the scene to show them how they moved from one point to another.

Akena, a child rights activist, was shot in the stomach at about 8pm on Saturday and succumbed to bullet wounds later in hospital on Sunday morning.
Police arrested Mr Kanyamunyu and Ms Munwangari after the deceased gave a dying declaration to his brother, Mr John Nyeko, that he had been shot by the very person who brought him to hospital.

Mr Nyeko said Akena told him that while reversing his car in the parking lot, he accidentally knocked Kanyamunyu’s car and he shot him as he tried to seek pardon for the mistake.

Sources at Nakasero Hospital told Daily Monitor that Kanyamunyu wanted to leave immediately after dropping Akena at the facility but the guard stopped him, saying he had to make a police statement since the victim had been shot.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima said by yesterday, police had not recovered the killer gun nor the cartridges.

He said the detectives had searched both the scene of crime and Kanyamunyu’s residence but had not recovered anything of prosecution value.

“Our officers from Flying Squad and Directorate of Criminal Investigations are still trying to connect the dying declaration with the story told by the suspects,” Mr Kayima said.

He said the suspects still insist that they were good samaritans who found the deceased shot a few metres away from Kyadondo Rugby Club.

By yesterday, police detectives were still in talks with managers of Forest Mall and Game Stores to establish whether their CCTV cameras captured the shooting and cars of deceased and suspect on Saturday night.

Police officers at Jinja Road Police Station told Daily Monitor that they had not received any person who witnessed the shooting.

Nakasero Hospital, where Akena was first briefly admitted, yesterday issued a statement denying that the hospital had refused to treat him as earlier reported. The hospital said the doctors carried out a CT scan on him.

“He was taken to the theatre at 9pm and an emergency surgery was carried out. Post operatively, the patient’s condition was still critical and needed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities. The ICU at Nakasero Hospital was at full capacity so he was kept on life support machine in the theatre as the search for an ICU in Kampala was made,” a statement by Nakasero Hospital reads in part.

The hospital management indicated that relatives of the deceased looked for the ICU facilities at Case Clinic and IHK, but failed to find vacant space.

“One was identified at Norvik Hospital where the patient was transferred at 2am,” the statement reads in part. Akena died at Norvik Hospital in the morning hours of Sunday.

A requiem mass for Akena will be held at Our Lady of Africa Church in Mbuya at 9am today thereafter his body will be transported to Kitgum District for burial tomorrow.

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