Nakasongola on edge after killings

This past week, on September 25, a three-member family riding on a motorcycle had hoped to retreat to its family home at Bamugolodde Trading Centre, Kalongo Sub-county, in Nakasongola District. Unbeknown to Julius Mutimba, a 45-year-old dentist, his 35-year-old wife identified as Resty Nakayima, and their six-month baby only identified as Immaculate, was the fact that they were being trailed.

It was about 9pm and the community road that Mr Mutimba’s motorcycle plied glittered under the pale moonlight.

“Nobody expects criminals to stage roadblocks at a community road [at that time],” Mr Geoffrey Ssemiga, a retired security officer and a resident of Nakasongola Town Council, told Saturday Monitor.

Yet the rogue elements had done just that, and would go on to strike in the most macabre manner with the aid of machetes.

“When I received a telephone call from my vice chairperson about the murder in my area, I was shocked because the road where the roadblock was staged is used by many people,” Mr Fenekansi Kimeze, the LC1 chairperson of Bamugolodde Village, said, adding, “It is likely that the killer gangs kept coordinating on phone to track the movements of the family.”

For residents of Nakasongola, there is a feeling of déjà vu. The latest fatal stabbings in their grisliness are reminiscent of the spate of six deaths across two days in December 2020.

“I cannot rule out the re-emergence of machete gangs that terrorised our people in 2020,” Mr Sam Kigula, the Nakasongola District chairperson, opined.

Four of the six killings in 2020 were executed by machete-wielding gangs in broad daylight. While this prompted residents in the district to link the deaths, which also included two others at Wabigalo Village in the cover of dusk, to suspected rebel groups, state actors were quick to dismiss the fears.

Describing the latest killings as “unfortunate”, the Nakasongola District Police Commander urged residents to “remain vigilant and try to identify suspicious people in our respective communities that move through our areas.”

Mr Kigula concurs, adding that life should be breathed into the sleepy district’s neighbourhood watch programme.

“The security teams cannot work [in] isolation […] we rally residents to avail information that will guide the security,” he told .

The district’s residents are now demanding heightened security, with the addition of more police personnel at the village-based police posts.

Mr Saleh Kamba, the Nakasongola Resident District Commissioner,  told Saturday Monitor that it is imperative that residents know that they too can play a telling role.

“I support the neighbourhood watch that enables everybody to be accountable for the security of a neighbour,” he said in an interview.

Mr Rogers Sunday Bwanga, the Nakasongola District Council speaker, said:“The killer gangs have a pattern of operation that almost presents skills in the way the murders are executed. They use machetes and don’t wait for the victims to get to their respective homes. Our security must take keen interest in the new security threat.”

All this has left this sleepy district that was carved out of Luweero in 1997 on a knife-edge.

Nakasongola deaths

Four of the six killings in 2020 were executed by machete-wielding gangs in broad daylight.  Residents suspected rebel groups were behind the murders, but State actors refuted the claims and reassured locals of security.