Lives we lost: 27-year-old lived for her daughter

In the new 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.

ERIOTH NDAGIRE
She was a cook and a waiter at a makeshift restaurant in Kazinga Cell, Kasenge Ward in Kyengera Town Council.  
The 27-year-old had got the job in June last year after the lockdown was partially lifted. 

Ndagire lived in a one-roomed house with her friend, Mayi Nakayizza, after separating from her husband.
“She was an easy going girl. She had come from Nakaseke but had left her two-year-old daughter there, with her parents. All her life rotated around her child. She always talked about her, and whenever we were paid, the first thing she did was buy her daughter a dress. She kept the dresses in her bag, with the hope of taking them to Nakaseke [during] the Christmas holiday.”

Ndagire died on a Thursday, the second day of the riots. A day before, eight people had been shot in Kyengera. Her neighbour, Mr Stanley Ssekaayi, says there was no rioting on the day she was killed.

“That morning, boda boda riders had wanted to riot in this area, and they began burning a tyre. However, the residents did not join in, so they quickly lost steam. A number of people had been shot on Masaka highway the day before; so, people were not interested in rioting. Life had returned to normal,” Mr Ssekaayi says.

He says that at 1pm, a police patrol car drove into Kazinga. Senior officers at Nsangi Police Station were spotted in the car. 

The officers began shooting indiscriminately, Mr Ssekaayi says, although no one was rioting.
One of the senior officers shooting reportedly asked, ‘Who is rioting?’

“Ndagire grabbed her red handbag and told me, ‘Let me hurry and put the saucepans inside the restaurant because in this situation, soldiers can kill anyone. I don’t want to leave my child alone in this world.’ As the police car came near the restaurant, I ran to hide behind the rentals at the back of the restaurant. Ndagire entered the restaurant and locked herself inside,” Nakayizza says.

A bullet penetrated the iron sheets and hit Ndagire in her left armpit, exiting in the right armpit. Nakayizza is the one who found her when she forced the restaurant door open.

In the aftermath of Ndagire’s death, residents raided and destroyed the home of Mr Ivan Mulera, the operating commander of the police station, accusing him of having shot her.

Ndagire was buried in Kiwomya Village, Nakaseke District. Police officers from Central Police Station in Kampala have visited the area as part of their investigations

[email protected]