Echoes of a crime: Echoes of Mwesigwa?

On the night of Tuesday, September 17, 2024, Winifred Mwesigwa Nakazani disappeared. She walked out of a heated staff meeting and was never seen alive again. But before she disappeared, at exactly 8.18 pm, an angry Mwesigwa had called a friend using her office landline.

“Man, I am stressed! I was not happy with what transpired in the meeting. Era tewedde. (It has not ended amicably). However, my phone battery is down (sic). I will inform you more about the meeting when I reach home and charge my phone,” she told the friend.

The 32-year-old mother of one was the principal of Kawempe Community School of Health Sciences. On the night she was last seen alive, she did not clock out of work. Her laptop was left open on her desk, indicating that when she stepped out of her office, she expected to return soon. No one saw her leave. Strangely, the CCTV cameras in the school had gone off at 8 pm. They were switched back on at 11 pm.

Mwesigwa’s lifeless body was discovered two days later, on September 17, dumped in a swamp in Makenke village, Nangabo sub-county, in Wakiso district, about 15 kilometers from the school. Peter Mulwanyi, a retired power engineer, says there was no identification on, or near, his daughter’s body.

“She had nothing on her. There was a very dark patch on her left cheek. They must have hit her with something. Her neck was flexible so most likely, it had been broken. There was semen in her private parts. The police told me she had been raped,” he says.

The mortuary report indicated the cause of death as asphyxia following suffocation. By the time the family contacted City Mortuary, the body was swollen to the point of bursting. They were just in time to rescue her from being buried in a mass grave.

Mwesigwa had completed her course at the Health Tutors’ College Mulago and was set to graduate this month. According to her mother, she planned to quit her job and pursue a master’s degree immediately after graduation.

Instead, she was buried on September 22 in Lambala village, Irongo sub-county, in Luuka district. Mwesigwa’s death robbed her six- year-old son of a mother and her family of a daughter who was the glue that held them together.

Who was Mwesigwa?

The young woman joined Kawempe Community School Of Health Sciences as a tutor in the latter half of 2023. According to those who knew her, at first, she was happy with the job. “With time, though, the salary arrears started piling up. The school spent months without remitting staff salaries and she began complaining,” says her friend who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity because he has received death threats.

Jane Mirembe Nansereko says at one time, her daughter, a born again Christian who congregated at House of Prayer Ministries International, Canaan Land, began looking for employment elsewhere.

“In January 2024, as she was still sending application letters to different organisations, the school informed her that she had been elevated to the position of principal. The woman who had previously occupied the position had resigned due to non-payment. Winnie accepted the job,” Nansereko says.

The mother describes the fourth born out of her five children as very obedient and full of love. Mwesigwa had promised her parents that once she qualified in the medical field, they would never queue up in hospitals again, seeking treatment.

“She wanted the best for everyone, that is why all of us are still crying over her loss today. She was the one treating us. We are lost. In 2020, I contracted Covid-19 and I would have died if it had not been for her. I suffer from high blood pressure and she has been prescribing medication for me and helping me buy it,” Nansereko laments.

In April 2024, Mwesigwa purchased a private clinic in Kasangati Town Council, refurbished it, and hired a nurse to run it. Her father would send his peers to her with their chronic illnesses, and she would diagnose them and prescribe treatment. Life seemed to be moving along smoothly. However, the calm waters were soon to turn turbulent.

“There were male staff members at the school who were older than her and had spent a longer time working there. Some of them were not happy about her elevation to the position of principal. She used to inform me about these challenges and I would counsel her,” her friend confides. He adds that it got to a point where some staff began boycotting their duties due to non-payment of salaries.

According to him, Mwesigwa also complained about the heavy workload and long working hours. She often clocked off between 7.30 pm and 8 pm. She lived with her mother in Gayaza.

To save on transport costs, and for security purposes, she often shared a boda boda from Kawempe with a male colleague who also lived in the same neighbourhood. Sometimes, the school van transported the duo to Mpererwe trading centre, where they would get a boda boda to Gayaza.

“A few months after she became principal, she informed me that she had gotten into serious strife with her superiors at the school. I advised her to resign but she insisted that she would only do so at the end of the semester. She had last received half a salary in May,” he says.

From work, Mwesigwa would go to her clinic to relieve the nurse who had worked during the day. Sometimes, she would work late, and sleep in the clinic, only going home in the morning to freshen up and take her son to school.

“Her colleagues did not treat her well. She told me that sometimes  she would greet them and they would just walk on, without responding to her. But, she was a jolly person and did not mind that kind of behaviour,” Nansereko intimates.

About three months after she was confirmed in the position of principal, Mwesigwa suspected that she had been poisoned. Nansereko says on that day, her daughter returned home feeling very ill.

“She said she knew she had been poisoned. Someone had served her lunch from the school kitchen. She wrote a prescription and told me to go to a pharmacy to buy the drugs and a drip. She said if it was poison, she would get better but if her condition worsened, then it would be another illness. It was 9pm,” Nansereko says.

She adds that within four hours of taking the medication and putting herself on the drip, Mwesigwa was feeling, and looking, much better.

“I advised her to go into the kitchen herself and serve herself from the general saucepan instead of waiting for someone to bring the food to her office,” Nansereko says.

Mwesigwa also informed her friend of the attempt on her life, saying she suspected the culprit was a workmate. Like her mother, her friend advised her to leave the job immediately. Besides the misgivings about her promotion, Mwesigwa also told her mother and friend that her colleagues were gossiping about her, accusing her of seducing the director of the school.

“I counselled her to ignore that talk because even the former principal had been accused of the same,” her mother narrates.

Discovering Mwesigwa’s body

The two friends last met on Sunday, September 15, 2024. Mwesigwa informed her friend that she was preparing a presentation for a staff meeting scheduled to take place the next day.

“We met at her clinic and parted ways at midnight. Winnie was happy but fatigued. I traveled upcountry on Monday and while there, she called me to say the meeting had been postponed to Tuesday. On Tuesday, as was our norm, we communicated on WhatsApp throughout the day,” he says.

Their last communication was on Tuesday, September 17 at 8.18 pm, when she promised to call him and tell him more about what had transpired at the stormy staff meeting. Strangely, that day, she did not leave the school with the male colleague who used to split transport costs with her on a boda boda.

“I waited for her call until midnight. I also tried to call her but her phone was off. The next day, I tried calling her, in vain. I decided to travel back to Kampala in the evening and I was at her clinic by 1am. It was closed. On Thursday morning, her mother called to ask if I had heard from her,” he says.

Mwesigwa’s son was sick and her mother needed money to buy drugs for him. She was also supposed to wash her son’s clothes that Thursday morning. Her friend sent the mother some money to buy drugs.

“The nurse at her clinic told me she had last seen Winnie on Tuesday morning. I was alarmed. I called some of her workmates who told me they had last seen her on Tuesday at 8 pm. They seemed unbothered. That is when I alerted her father,” he says.

Mulwanyi received the call at about 1 pm. At the time, he was not feeling well, but when his daughter’s friend asked when he had last spoken to her, he became alert.

“I felt something. I had last seen Winnie at her clinic 10 days before she disappeared. But we had spoken on the phone three days previously when I sent her money to restock drugs,” he says.

Mulwanyi immediately took the situation under his control. He rang the school director, who informed him that he was also looking for Mwesigwa but he could not reach her. The two gentlemen met at the school and agreed to disseminate information online alerting the public about her disappearance.

“We created groups with some of the staff members to carry out a physical search in all the causality wards in hospitals around Kampala. They did not find her. The director joined the team assigned to search Mulago Hospital, saying since he was well known, he would have easy access to the wards,” Mulwanyi adds.

The distraught father led a team to City Mortuary, but it was dark by the time they arrived there. They were informed that the forensics officer had already left. However, they were informed that two bodies of females had been recovered in Kisangani and Gayaza.

“One of the bodies was of a young girl, while the other one was of a woman in her mid-thirties. Winnie’s sister in South Africa advised us to focus on the second body. So, we went to Kisangani Police Station and engaged the officer-in-charge (OC),” Mulwanyi explains.

The OC connected them to the scene of crime officer, who gave them more information about the body. Mulwanyi says by the time they ended the phone call, he was 90 percent sure that his daughter was dead.

“The only mismatch was when the officer described the body as that of a dark woman. My daughter was light-skinned. However, I was informed that by the time they recovered the body, it had been exposed to the elements for a long time,” he says.

By midnight, the family was made aware that the body belonged to their daughter. No justice as yet for Mwesigwa Four months after she was murdered, Mwesigwa is yet to find justice. Those who attended her burial in Luuka District confirm that the director confirmed that the school’s CCTV cameras were off when Mwesigwa disappeared. He promised that the person in charge would be answerable for the glitch.

“He told us to leave the follow-up on the case to him because he had the ‘means.’ So, we abandoned the case. We do not know what is happening now. Maybe they are still investigating but we have never heard from the director. He does not pick up our calls,” Nansereko says.

When contacted by phone, Hon Herbert Kinobere, the Member of Parliament for Kibuku County, who is the director of Kawempe Community School of Health Sciences, says the investigations have taken another strand to involve other security organs.

“Those who murdered her should not think that they are safe. Much as we are using the police, we are also using other investigative bodies such as the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). As an institution, we are still in shock about Winnie’s murder but we have never rested because those people must be caught and brought to book,” he says.

The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, the spy agency of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) has since been rebranded to Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS).

"I think Kasangati is now a dangerous place, because during Christmas week, another woman was murdered there. This means security must pick interest in that area,” Kinobere, who is also the vice spokesperson of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Caucus, adds.

When the Monitor reached out to Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, he informed us that investigations were ongoing.

“It is a case of murder that was first reported as a disappearance by her boss, but later, the body was found in a swamp. Our officers recorded statements from the scene and tried to move around to locate any nearby CCTV camera but there was none. No suspects have been arrested,” he says.

He appeals to members of the public who have any information about the case to pass it in confidence to the nearest police station.

Mulwanyi admits that he has visited Kasangati Police Station a few times to make his statement. However, he does not know the progress of the case, believing investigations are ongoing.

“The police officers told me murder investigations take a long time to conclude. They said it could take two years. So, we are waiting. Since they have all they need to carry out the investigation, we are giving them time to do their work,” he says.

The family says they are ready to forgive whoever murdered their daughter, although they want to know who did it. So far, no suspect has been arrested in Mwesigwa’s murder. However, unanswered questions abound. For instance, why didn’t her colleague travel with her on that day, yet they always shared a bodaboda to Gayaza for security purposes?

At 8pm, why didn’t the school van ferry the principal home? “She couldn’t have left the school on a bodaboda because she was scared of them, especially at night. She probably left in a vehicle but Winnie was a principled lady and she would never take a lift from someone she did not know. That means she probably knew whoever gave her a lift,” says another friend, who spoke to the Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Why were the CCTV cameras switched off between 8 pm and 11 pm? If it was due to a power outage, why wasn’t the generator switched on? Did she clock out on that day? Who saw her leave the school and how did she leave?

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