Lives we lost: 25-year-old loses life after prayers
What you need to know:
- He was coming from the mosque where he had gone for prayer. The policeman shot him in the head. He died on the spot
In the last instalment of this series, we chronicle how bullets prematurely shattered the blooming dreams of dozens during two days of madness last November. In interviews with our reporter, Gillian Nantume, grieving families and friends share the triumphs, travails and final moments of relatives in a way that offers insights into the lives of victims hitherto treated as statistics.
FAISAL BWANIKA
The 25-year-old had no wife and children at the time of his death. He was a farmer and trader, growing ginger, which he used to sell in Kampala.
Witnesse say at about 8pm, on November 19, a group of youth began rioting in Kyabadaaza Town. When the police came to disperse them, they shot bullets at the crowd.
Najib Nsubuga, a friend of the deceased, says: “The rioters ran and hid behind the buildings in the town. One of the policemen, attached to Kyabadaaza Police Station, came across Bwanika in one of the pathways.
“He was coming from the mosque where he had gone for prayer. The policeman shot him in the head. He died on the spot.”
Nsubuga says locals identified the policeman who had shot Bwanika and wanted to lynch him.
“The policeman ran into the police station. To this day, we have never seen him,” he said.
Bwanika was buried in Kyabadaaza Village, Budde Sub-county, Butambala District.
