November riots: Families recount year without loved ones

Families that lost loved ones during the November riots will mark the first year death anniversary with more questions than answers.

The families Daily Monitor interviewed in our series on the aftermath of the riots confirmed that they had neither received any compensation nor legal help despite the presidential pledge.

Tale of two mothers
Ms Bella Namulindwa, 22, a resident of Bubajjwe, Kawempe South Division in Kampala says she last saw Baker Kato Lubwama, the father of her daughter, a week before he was gunned down around Entebbe Road.

Ms Namulindwa said when Lubwama left on November 14, he told her that he was going to work. Sometimes this would mean not seeing  him for a couple of months.  “When I missed my period three weeks later, I dialled his number to give him the great news but no one answered,” she said.

Ms Namulindwa added: “After a month and a half, I got concerned why he was not calling me back. I called persistently for the next few days until someone answered and told me that he had been buried two months earlier.”

Ms Namulindwa was directed to National Unity Platform (NUP) offices in Kamwokya, where she met with leaders who advised her to look for the husband’s relatives at his former workplace, which she duly did. 

While at his workplace at the new Taxi Park, Ms Namulindwa filed a case with the police.  

“They have neither given me money nor led me to any office where I can get justice for the father of my child. I know his family has complained about the same despite the fact that we have moved from one office to another,” she says.

Another mother, Ms Aisha Robinah Nantume, lost her son, Innocent Nduggwa.  “If my son had stolen anything, I would have paid for it. If he had confronted a policeman and fought him, I would have understood,” she said, adding: “But now how do I keep calm when my son, the only son, was found in our shop and shot dead?”

Nduggwa, 21, allegedly managed all family businesses. Ms Nantume, who says she “got tired” after being “tossed” around by the police, said President Museveni “will one day shed the tears that I have shed for my son.”

Mr Isaiah Ssebwami, a brother to Willy Kayondo, who died at Kubbiri at the Kalerwe roundabout in Kampala, says police at Wandegeya Division headquarters tasked them to provide evidence that the deceased was their relative. 

“We picked all the necessary documentation as the police had told us, but it always didn’t seem enough. They kept telling us to go find more documents and with time we came to know that they were not committed to serving us with justice,” Ssebwami narrates.

Mr Ssebwami now struggles to look after three children of the deceased.

Mr Trevor Kasekende, a family friend of Christopher Kayizi, who was shot dead at Najjanankumbi on Entebbe-Kampala highway, says his colleagues have since abandoned the workshop.

“We could not stay there. We knew they were going to take us or even kill us,” he says. Kayizi was killed while he was crossing the road towards the workshop.

“We don’t think we can ever get justice because we have made to and fro journeys at police in vain. ...At some point, Uganda Human Rights officials came and took some statements from us, but they have never returned,” Kasekende narrates.

Mr Hassan Magala, whose brother Ismail Mukiibi, 14, died says the family always wonders what might have been the future of the young star, who was passionate about motor mechanics. Mukiibi was shot in the legs around Makerere University.

“We don’t know where to run to because we feel it was unfair for my brother to be shot so carelessly. The police that has asked for many documents and have since gone silent,” he says.  

Rights activists say

Ms Mariam Wangadya, the Uganda Human Rights chairperson, yesterday said her office was investigating 16 cases. Ten of these are related to death while the others are related to alleged torture and illegal detention.

“I don’t have details of the specific cases, but also we are in advanced stages of the investigations. We shall release a report soon when we are done with the compilation,” she said, adding:

“We shall thereafter come up with a tribunal, and upon scrutiny, the tribunal will pronounce itself on the matter and see how justice can be dispensed.”