Lives we lost: Nsubuga was his deaf mother’s interpreter

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.

GIFT SAMUEL NSUBUGA
He was the second person shot at Maison Hotel. He was hit by one of the bullets that had been fired in the air to disperse the crowd that had gathered around Ssendagire’s body.

Nsubuga was 16-years-old. He was a Senior Two student of St Henry’s College Namugongo in Wakiso District. He lived with his parents in Eriza zone, in Kyebando.

Because his mother had been born with a hearing impairment, Nsubuga taught himself sign language so that he could be her interpreter whenever she ventured into public. There are a number of people with physical disabilities at his home, and his siblings say he always felt bad when people mistreated them. Nsubuga did not have any physical disability. 

On the fateful day, his father, David Ssempaka, says Nsubuga spent the whole morning and early afternoon at home. At 3pm, his wife had sent their son to Eden Internet Café, above Maison Motel, to buy Yaka [electricity prepaid token] and photocopy some documents for her. The café is about 300 metres from their home.

“We did not know there was rioting, but even then, from what I later heard, whatever rioting was there had not yet reached Kyebando,” he says.
Daniel Katumba, an attendant at Eden Internet Café, says Nsubuga came in at 3pm with his friend, a one Besigye.

“I did not have [Internet connectivity] so I told them to come back later. They went away, but returned after a few minutes to play games on the video console in the café. When the rioting got louder, as it moved from Kalerwe to Kyebando, the boys went to the balcony to watch the action on the road,” he says.

Katumba says he urged them to come back inside so that they could lock themselves inside the shop. When they refused, he went to the balcony to pull them inside.

“There were two policemen and one soldier standing at the junction of Arnold Road. We quickly turned to enter the café. I was in front, while Nsubuga was the last to enter. As he put his foot in the doorway, he said,

“Mpulira akantu mu lubuto. Oba waliwo ekinsaze?” (loosely translated as: I feel something going through my stomach. Has something cut me?) He touched his stomach and said, “Oba bankubye.” (loosely translated as: Maybe I have been shot).”

When he removed his hands from his stomach, blood came pouring out and he fell in the doorway. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black trousers, and red bathroom sandals.
Nsubuga was buried in Busiika, in Kalagala Sub-county, Luweero District. His father says no government official has approached the family over the death of their son.
[email protected]