BY BOY FIDEL LEON
In August 2021, machete wielding gangs stormed Masaka sub-region especially in Lwengo District and for more than seven months, they had killed at least 27 people. This was the second return of this heinous type of criminal killings raising dust amongst the top leadership in the country.
For more than two years now, dozens of people including two Members of Parliament; Muhammad Ssegirinya (Kawempe North) and Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye East) have been and are still battling several charges in connection to the killings.
This second phase of killings had come on the foot hills of another that woke up the country from a huge nightmare in 2017 when more dozens of people had been killed with machetes. The police has always been on the spot for the same but answers are yet to be given to the general public.
In a similar playout of a nigh-mare of the past incidents, a family of five who were residents of Kijonjo village, Buwunga Sub County, Masaka District got alarmed in the wee hours of the morning of Friday as the dreaded killers broke through their house and chopped all of them in cold blood.
“Whoever was in the house was killed,” Mr James Basudde the Chairperson of Kijonjo village said in an interview with this publication.
The unknown murderers ended the lives of Emma Mutesaasira (57 Years), Proscovia Ddagaamo (52 years), Gorret Nakamya (13 years), Shivan Nakasagga (5 years) and Robert Kayemba who was 2 years old.
Basudde said that the raiders took advantage of the fact that many of the victims’ neighbors had converged in the next village for the last funeral rites and could hardly respond to the alarms.
Ms Beatrice Nakintu, a relative of the deceased narrates that she was called by a neighbor who found one of the bodies dumped in the banana plantation. She says that the family has had no known misunderstandings in the area, and is left wondering what could have caused their killing.
Mr Twaha Kasirye, the southern region police spokesperson said that a hunt for the killers has been launched and that they have also involved the sniffer dog to help in tracing the killers.
“Police is on ground to pick the bodies for post modem as we continue with our investigations,” Mr Twaha said.
It is believed that a group popularly known as Bijambiya are the ones responsible for causing these untold suffering in the region of Masaka, well as by 2016, they had killed several people forcing the former Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kahihura to carry out a series of operations which led to to the arrest of Muhammed Kidawalime and Musa Galiwango who were believed to be the ring leaders of the gang.
These gruesome massacres have been constantly happening in the region of Masaka. The government is now being pulled in to create a better solution for a vice that has been happening for over a decade.
Yesterday, police was still establishing another case of a woman’s body that was dumped around the same area on suspicion of being another victim of the bijambiya group.
