Lives we lost: Hawker helpless in hospital before he died
This photo handout shows 29-year-old hawker Daniel Nahurira who was shot dead during the deadly November 18/19 deadly protests. Read story below for details. PHOTO/NMG.
What you need to know:
- On the day he died, Nahurira did not go to town. He remained in Kibwa with his friends and had lunch at a restaurant. Even when the rioting began, he kept in the shops.
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.
DANIEL NAHURIRA
He was hawking groundnuts and grasshoppers. The 29-year-old had one toddler whom he had left in the village with his mother, but he had no wife. He lived in Ku Nsenene in Kibwa Zone, Nabweru Sub-county, Wakiso District. Since 2012, when he first came to Kampala, Nahurira had been living in Nabweru.
Mr Patrick Mugyenyi, who was Nahurira’s friend, says he was a hardworking man.
“He always woke up early to walk around Kampala with his merchandise unlike the other people who just sit around shops.”
On the day he died, Nahurira did not go to town. He remained in Kibwa with his friends and had lunch at a restaurant. Even when the rioting began, he kept in the shops.
“Huge fires had been lit on Nabweru Road, and when the police came to put them out at about 5pm, the rioters ran into Kibwa. As we saw them coming, we also began running. Nahurira was affected by the teargas; so, he stopped and stood outside a shop, begging the shopkeeper for water to wash his face.”
The shopkeeper did not pay him any attention because she was hurriedly removing her merchandise from the verandah in order to close her shop. She did not want the rioters to steal her goods.
“As he stood there, he was shot in the stomach. He did not know immediately that he had been shot, but he kept touching his abdomen in different places until he fell down. We saw the bullet. I hired a car to take him to Nabweru Police Station where we reported the case, and then took him to Mulago hospital. We put him on a bed but no one attended to him until he died at 7.30pm,” Ms Mugyenyi says.
Nahurira was buried in Rwaja Village, Mitooma District.
