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Woman stabs man dead in a Kampala hotel
Alex Otula
KAMPALA- A 24-year-old woman, who was arrested by police after hours of manhunt over the killing of a man in a city hotel, has allegedly told police that she stabbed him by “accident”.
Staff at Top Five Hotel in Ntinda, a city suburb, found the body of Alex Otula, 30, in a pool of blood at 1am yesterday in a room he had booked.
Otula was a logistics officer at Send A Cow, a non-govermental organisation in Kampala, according to information on his Facebook page. He graduated from Makerere University and friends flooded his Facebook page with tributes as news of his death spread.
The Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, said the suspect had a relationship with the deceased and she had travelled from Lamwo District in northern Uganda to Kampala to meet him.
“She said they had met to solve a family issue and in the process the difference escalated into a fight. She said she stabbed him by mistake,” Mr Owoyesigyire said by telephone.
After the killing, the suspect fled and was tracked using her mobile telephone.
Mr Owoyesigyire said police have preferred a charge of murder against the woman, pending guidance or sanction by the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
“We are still verifying whether the two had a relationship for a long time and why they chose to go to a lodge other than to his home. That will give us the motive of the killing. The victim had several wounds in the chest,” he said.
Police found a knife stained with blood hidden in a flower pot in the room where Otula’s body was discovered.
“Our officers found half empty bottles of beer and crumbs of snacks. It appears they first had fun before the murder. Everything in the room was scattered, an indication that there was a scuffle before Otula died,” he said.
Two Top Five Hotel workers and their manager, were arrested during the initial stages of investigations, and later released.
Murder cases registered by police in which female suspects are named as masterminds increased in 2018 to 226, double those recorded in the previous year, according to statistics in the 2018 Police Annual Crime Report.
