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Luweero farmer gunned down, phone taken
BY DAN WANDERA
Police in Luweero District are investigating circumstances under which a farmer and resident of Tweyanze village in Katikamu Subcounty was shot dead at close range by a yet to be identified gunman on Friday night.
The motive of the shooting that claimed life of Musa Katinda Bisaso, 45, is still unknown.
The deceased was shot from his home by an unidentified gunman who reportedly called him by name to come out of the house before killing him.
Luweero police detectives say the assailant used a pistol and only took away the phone of the deceased as he quickly disappeared through the nearby banana and coffee plantation.
Mr Issa Ssemogerere the Savana Region Police Spokesperson on Saturday confirmed the shooting.
“The police visited the scene and took away the body to the Kampala City Mortuary for postmortem. The police detectives are on the ground to establish the facts surrounding suspicious killing. We have not registered gun killings in the recent past as the country went through the Covid -19 lockdown,” Ssemogerere said over the phone.
Ms Suzan Namatovu, the deceased’s widow claimed that her husband is a victim of a family land dispute.
“Bisaso has finally been eliminated. Let them share the land because they believed that my husband was the problem,” Namatovu said in a brief interview.
Meanwhile, residents at Tweyanze village led by their LCI chairperson, Mr Bosco Byekalaze, who were equally shocked by the shooting could not rule out a possible link to a long standing and unresolved family land ownership wrangle that has kept the family of the deceased divided.
“We have for a long time heard about a bitter land dispute involving the deceased and his relatives over the land measuring about two acres. This particular family has had a long unresolved land ownership dispute that many residents claim should interest the police investigation team. We are also surprised that the person who killed Katinda first called him by name and wanted him to come out of his house,” Byekalaze said.
Mr Rashid Kabaale, the LCI Defence Secretary for Tweyanze village and neighbor to the deceased claimed that he heard the gunshots but waited to ensure that his life is safe before he could come out of his house to find out what was happening at Katinda’s.
“We found Katinda seriously bleeding and fighting for his life after the shooting. We tried to organize for transport but he breathed his last before we could transport him to hospital,” Kabaale said.
“While it is true that the family has had a longstanding land wrangle, it is too early to speculate that it could be the reason for the unfortunate incident. When the police finally arrived and recovered the bullet shells at the scene, we were briefed that the suspected assailant used a pistol and not a bigger firearm,” he added.
Mr Kabaale appealed to the police to ensure that the investigation processes are completed.
“For this case, the assailant used a mobile phone to call the deceased by his name and it is possible that the deceased had his name recorded in the phonebook. It is easy to establish the identity of the person who killed Katinda when the phone details and phone traffic is tracked,” Kabaale said in an interview.
