The younger sister to slain Maria Nagirinya Gateni, a staff at Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) a Non-Government Organisation, who was kidnapped and later murdered by unknown people, has said she fears for her life as well.
Bernadette Nakidde, who came face to face with her sister’s abductors on the fateful night, says she and one of the men who took Nagirinya stared at each other in a moment as she struggled to intercept them.
According to Nakidde, when her sister called for the gate to be opened, she came out only to find the car, a Toyota Spacio UBA570V, reversing with Nagirinya screaming her lungs out: “temuntwala, temuntwala’ (Do not take me).
“There was a man who was wearing a red jacket and white shirt, he had big eyes and some beards. I looked at him and he also looked at me. I am not sure he kept my face, I don’t know how safe I am. I am so scared of my life.”
Maria Nagirinya and Ronald Kitayimbwa were kidnapped from the gate ,last week, in Lungujja by unknown men. They were later murdered and their bodies dumped at Nakitutuli Village in Nama sub-county, Mukono district.
Though the family of Maria Nagirinya condemned her death during the requiem mass at St. Peters Church at Nsambya yesterday, her father Francis Lubowa said he would leave it to God to avenge her death. Here is what Lubowa, and other family members said, with bleeding hearts.
He added that he received a call from President Museveni and the Head of State assured him of full investigations as well as Shs10m in condolences.
Dr. Ben Mukwaya, the director of Nsambya General Hospital and a family member, said the postmortem carried out by police surgeon Dr Moses Byaruhanga and Male Mutumba indicated multiple skull fractures after Ngirinya’s head was hit and smashed.
Nagirinya, who died at a tender age of 28, had been working as a project manager at the Community Integrated Development Initiative. Her husband, Edgar Gatenyi could not hold back his tears;
The family also accused police of gross incompetence saying they did their work sluggishly.
Mukwaya said they approached police as soon as she was abducted only for them to turn up at 6.30pm the following day. Dr Mukwaya noted that security services need to upgrade their crime intelligence and better their public relations.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga , in reaction to the accusations, said that the Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola has already taken up the matter. Enanga sasy 10 suspects have so far been arrested;
Meanwhile, The Police Chief Political Commissar AIGP Asan Kasingye has issued stern warning against errant officers who are reluctant and slow to respond whle to on duty especially, when it comes to kidnaps and murders.
Kasingye says that they will also not tolerate any officer who switches off his/her official phone off and those who miss work without any reasonable excuse.
This follows reports implicating officers in charge of Lungujja community, Busega, Kibumbiro police Nateete and Katwe police for failing to respond to the case of kidnap and later murder of the Project Manager at Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) a Non-Government Organisation, Maria Nagirinya and as well as Ronald Kitayimbwa .
He further says that the Professional Standards Unit(PSU), has already been ordered to take up urgent investigations into the matter of gross neglect that resulted into the death of the deceased.
During the press conference at Police headquarters Naguru, AIGP Asan Kasingye disclosed that some of the officers have already been arrested and are helping the PSU with Investigations.
Meantime, Residents of Nabisasiro Village, Busega in Rubaga division from where the slain Maria Nagirinya was kidnapped, claim that they heard her screaming but they thought it was the usual petty crimes. But residents in the area claim that they have so many incidences of petty theft, including several boda boda men and other thugs who snatch ladies’ handbags and people’s phones.
“It was about 11:30 pm when we heard. Nagirinya’s people always take some time to open the gate and we can’t tell where the men came from to seize her and dash off,” he added.
The LC 1 chairperson for Nabisasiro village, Clement Kizza, also claimed that there was a distress call from Nagirinya which must have been heard by a number of residents, but no one came to rescue.
Another resident claims that on hearing the screams, some people tried to chase the car including boda boda riders, but they were outrun.
“There were men on bikes that were leading the car, some people tried to chase after then but they couldn’t. The car and the boda bodas took Rubaga road and disappeared,’” a resident claimed.
Nagirinya was buried on Sunday at Kibuye Katwe behind the former Molly and Paul Primary School.
