Missing Busia man found dead in garden

A police inquest is underway in Busia District following the death of a man who went missing two weeks ago after his body was found in a cassava garden.

Moses Munooko, a resident of Nabahasi Village, Buyanga Sub- County, Busia District, was last seen alive on October 9, and since then, a frantic search for him has been underway.

However, his body was Sunday evening discovered in a cassava garden located about 300 metres from his home by a resident who had gone hunting for wild rabbits.

Munooko’s sister Mary Wandera said: “He disappeared on Independence Day and since then, his whereabouts remained unknown. All he said was that he was going to bathe at a nearby well.”

Joseph Erima, the Buyanga Sub-county LC3 Chairman noted that they were drawn to the cassava garden by “a stench of decomposition.”

Jackson Kiwangari, the Officer In-Charge (OC) of Buyanga Police Station, said investigations are underway.

“I got a report on October 16 that Munooko had gone missing and we have since been trying to establish his whereabouts until Sunday when we were informed that he was dead,” Kiwangari remarked on Sunday.

He told this publication that the deceased’s family filed a missing persons report at police a week after he went missing, wondering whether it was deliberate or the family thought it was a minor matter.

Leonard Ofiti, the Village LC1 secretary, however, says they intended to mount a search for the missing resident, but they were allegedly "denied the opportunity by his family who preferred witchcraft."

He said: “We asked the family to allow us mobilise all the people in the village and search for the deceased, but they refused, insisting on relying on witchdoctors to help them identify his whereabouts.”

At the family home of the deceased, where several residents gathered, police took on locals for their alleged failure to do enough to establish the whereabouts of the missing man.