Man kills brother's wife over phone battery, injures father, grandfather

A 23-year-old man in Bukedea District has been detained by police after he hacked to death his brother’s wife over an Itel phone battery that malfunctioned while being charged using a solar panel.

Stephen Okwii, a resident of Kokutu village in Bukedea Sub County, reportedly started a fight after learning that his father left a phone battery worth Shs8,000 to explode while it charged.

“When Okwii learned that his battery had exploded, he became enraged and started fighting his father, Michael Imalingat,” an eyewitness, Ms Winny Abwate told Monitor.

In the course of the fight, the brother's wife identified as Joyce Acham rushed to intervene, but instead, Okwii lifted a hand hoe and hacked Joyce Acham, a mother of four children, to death.

“Our community is shocked because this is the first time a man has killed his brother's wife”, said Ms Abwate.

Mr Simon Elungat, from the Kokutu village area LC1 said that the suspect also left his father Imalingat, and grandmother Atino severely injured.

“The injured had attempted to stop him from harming the wife and the brother but he overpowered them and in the process left them nursing wounds,” the area LC1 chairperson narrated.

By press time, both his father Imalingat, and grandmother Rose Atino were being attended to at Bukedea Health Centre IV for treatment.

Bukedea District police commander Mr Richard Asiimwe said that Stephen Okwii is being held in police cells at Bukedea Central police station, while the body of the deceased woman has been transported to Bukedea Health Centre IV for postmortem.

"As police, we intervened and arrested Okwii as we prepared the body for postmortem," Mr Asiimwe said.

A murder conviction and an attempted murder conviction will be preferred by the police against the suspect.