MP Macho’s bodyguard shot dead 

A personal bodyguard of Busia Municipality Member of Parliament (MP) Geoffrey Macho has been shot dead by unknown assailants.

Pte Ivan Kakai, a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) soldier attached to the military police VIPPU unit, was shot dead in Sofia B Village at a local church in Busia Town at about 10am yesterday.

 Mr Macho had just moved out of his  car to attend service at Divine Healing Centre International Church.

“I heard gunshots in the direction I had parked my car and shortly, I saw my bodyguard running to the church compound as an assailant followed shooting at him,”  Mr Macho said.

 The MP said as soon as he moved out the car, the deceased, who was wearing a suit, sat in the seat where he had been and as the officers arrived, they just opened fire towards his bodyguard.

 Mr Franco Ouma, who had remained outside the car, told the Daily Monitor at the scene of the shooting that two men moving on a motorcycle came to the MP’s car, one opened the behind door as the other who opened fire at the bodyguard.

 “Two men came wearing black jackets and as one of them opened the rear door of the car, the other pulled out a pistol and shot at the UPDF soldier,” Mr Ouma said.

 He added that the deceased jumped out of the car and tried to escape but the officer followed him.

Mr Emma Ekakuro, a member of the church, said he first heard gunshots and later saw the bodyguard running towards the church as a man wearing a black jacket chased him.

 “I saw the deceased running with the whole of his body full of blood as a man wielding a pistol chased after him,” Mr Ekakuro said.

 Mr Moses Kakiryo, the Busia District Police Commander, declined to comment saying it was too early to speak to the media but this reporter saw one assailant being arrested.

 Mr Macho said the assailants had  trailed him from a church in central parish in Eastern division before and at a certain moment they nearly knocked his car.

Mr Macho, who is the incumbent MP for Busia Municipality, is seeking reelection on an independent ticket after losing to Mr Hassan Kamba during the NRM party primaries.

“My bodyguard has been shot eight times by police who thought they were shooting Macho,” the legislator said. 

The killing has caused mixed reactions among local leaders and residents.

 Mr Moses Oguttu, a resident, said they were demanding an explanation from security forces on the cause of the shooting, adding that those involved  should be brought to book.

 Mr Aggrey Awori, the former ICT minister, who was at the home of the MP at Kisenyi Village, said the shooting raises several questions.

 Mr Awori said if it was a planned assassination then it was too bad for the politics of the country .

 “I think politics should be a game where various candidates sell their ideas to the voters and not these shootings we are beginning to witness,” he argued.

 He questioned the move by the government to deploy soldiers to guard MPs.  “This idea that MPs are guarded by UPDF soldiers is not good at all and if it were possible this decision should be rescinded ,” Mr Awori said.

 Government embarked on providing security to MPs following a series of unexplained murders of top officials in government and Muslim clerics.

 The body of the deceased was taken for postmortem as police begin investigations into the cause of the shooting.