Village helpless as girl,12,  is killed in mother’s house

Residents of Mpakawero Zone in Bombo Town Council on Monday morning woke up to appalling news about a mother who allegedly beheaded her 12-year-old daughter.

The distraught single mother, a tomato vendor, according to witnesses, is said to have locked up her daughter, Lina Kawonawo, a Primary Six pupil at Bombo Common Primary School, in their one-bedroom rented house at around 6.45am, before chopping off her head.
One of the neighbours desperately mobilised residents to come to Kawonawo’s rescue, who was by that time yelling for help, but their attempts to open the door weren’t successful.

The suspected killer-mother was then heard hacking the helpless girl using objects that the police identified as a panga and a hoe. All this happened in the presence of Kawonawo’s two traumatised siblings who were saved.
Mr Deo Matovu, a neighbour, said he had just returned from dropping off his children at school when he heard the girl call out for help.
“I asked the suspect to open the door but she insisted that she could only oblige when police appeared. I mobilised residents but it was too late to save the girl after we succeeded in breaking the door,” he said.

The rescuers, upon getting access to the house, were greeted by disturbing images of the suspected killer mother carrying her child’s head. 
Ms Hasifah Khemis Rehemah, another neighbour, said when Kawonawo’s voice calling out for help went silent, their hopes of finding her alive faded.
“We heard her (suspect) shouting at her other children to stop crying,” she says. 
Mr James Mulambuzi, the Mpakawero Zone chairperson, said the suspect survived lynching by angry residents.

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw the headless body of a young girl soaked in blood. The police quickly arrived at the scene and whisked away the suspect before the angry residents could lynch her,” he said.
Mr Mulambuzi further said the suspect was fearlessly carrying the decapitated human head in her hands. 

“The police recovered a blood-stained hand hoe and panga that the suspect could have used to gruesomely end the life of the 12-year-old girl. The other two children below the age of nine, who looked frightened, were quickly evacuated to Bombo Police Station,” he said.
 
The Savannah Region Police Spokesperson, Mr Sam Twineamazima, said a team of detectives from Bombo Police Station had already visited the area and that a suspect was in custody.