Lawyers grill witness over Katanga family's alleged suicide history

The high profile homicide case in which five people are charged in connection with the death of Kampala businessman Henry Katanga resumed Tuesday with the defense lawyer questioning the step sister of the deceased about the suicide history in the family.

During cross-examination, Mr Jet Tumwebaze put it to Ms Naume Nyagweso that because one of the closest family members allegedly died by suicide, it was likely that her younger brother, Henry, shot himself on that fateful morning of November 2, 2023.

"There is a person you confided in that you fear that your brother (Henry Katanga) was suicidal just like your other brother, Ntomi," Mr Tumwebaze said during cross examination before Justice Isaac Muwata of the High Court in Kampala.

He added: "I want to put to you that you have a history of suicide in your family and your brother, Katanga's suicide did not surprise you."

But in response, Ms Nyagweso, who is the ninth prosecution witness dismissed the lawyer's claims.

"Not true, my lord," she replied.

During further cross examination, court heard about what could have been the genesis of the friction between Katanga's widow (Molly Katanga, who is the key suspect) and her step sister-in-law, Ms Nyagweso.

This was after counsel Tumwebaze put it to Ms Nyagweso that her late younger brother didn't trust her, the reason he never picked her to play the paternal roles of an aunt at their Kinyakore marriage ceremony of his daughter Patricia Kakwanza and yet she was the only surviving sister he had.

Ms Nyagweso in response admitted that instead, Ms Molly Katanga picked her cousin, one Lydia Kabirizi to play that important role of an aunt, a move that the lawyer argues could have ignited the friction between the two.

 It also emerged during the cross examination that the deceased used to call his wife Molly twice a day unlike his sister ( Nyangwesho) whom he called only once in two months. This was after the phone logs of the late Katanga were examined.

Ms Nyagweso had in her testimony in chief claimed to have been very close to her late brother, especially in the days prior to his death.

Prosecution alleges that Molly Katanga shot her husband dead at their Mbuya home in Kampala on November 2, 2023.

Ms Katanga, however, denies the murder charges that attract the maximum punishment upon conviction of death by hanging.

She’s jointly charged with her two daughters Patricia Kakwanzi and Martha Nkwazi who are accused of destroying evidence and being an accessory after the fact of murder 
Also charged are George Amanyire, a shamba boy and Mr Charles Otai, a nursing officer with the aforementioned lesser charges.

Further cross examination of Ms Nyagweso continues this morning.

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