More details emerge on city septic deaths

The 24-year-old man had disappeared for two days in Kampala.

The Kampala Metropolitan police deputy spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigire, told this newspaper yesterday that Kabowa Police Station under Katwe Divisional Police Headquarters had received reports of disappearance of Turyasingura from Norman Muhangi, a medical officer.

In his statement to the police, Mr Muhangi said his cousin, Turyasingura, whom he was staying with in the uncompleted storeyed house of a one Charles Tumwine, had gone missing on Tuesday night, January 25.

He alleged that a security guard, a one Geoffrey Duku, at the same home, had also gone missing the following day, on January 26.

Mr Muhangi also said both Turyasingura and Duku’s mobile phones had been switched off.

On January 24, Turyasingura’s father travelled from Rukungiri District to Kampala to check on his son. He went to Ms Noame Tumwine’s home where Patrick was staying and he asked Ms Tumwine to tell him where his son was.

The search for the two missing persons went on until January 29, when the wife Ms Tumwine came to the site at around 4pm. She went to open the septic tank, only to find the decomposing body of Turyasingura.

On Friday, a team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department at Katwe spent more than 10 hours at the residence empting the septic tank where the body was found.

A skull, suspected to be that of Ronald Akatulinda, a worker at Ms Tumwine’s home, who been reported missing in December 2020, was also found in the same septic tank.

In the same month, the police had also registered a case by Mr Charles Tumwine about theft and disappearance of Akatulinda from the same home then under construction.

Mr Owoyesigire said: “Plans are also in initial stages to do DNA analysis to confirm whether the bones belong to Akatulinda.”

Sources familiar with the investigation told this newspaper that Turyasingura’s body had a flat stomach and had a black spot around the throat.

“The body had started decomposing, with the skin peeling off. It looked like it was strangled and dumped in the septic tank two weeks ago,” the source said.

Turyasingura had reportedly travelled from Rukungiri to Kampala to process a passport and go abroad. But because he had no accommodation in Kampala, he then went to the home where his body was later found dumped in a septic tank.

The scene

A source privy to the investigations said the septic tank where the body and the skull were retrieved had four manholes, with the body lying in the second manhole.

“It is suspected that the deceased was strangled behind the boy’s quarters because there were suspected blood stains on the wall,” he said.

The police homicide team, while at the crime scene, also retrieved a closed-circuit television footage and it showed that it had gone off for two days.

“From January 25 to 27, the cameras were off and even power was off in both the main house and boy’s quarters where the deceased was staying,” the source said.

The police said three suspects are in custody and more investigations were ongoing.

The names involved

●     Patrick Turyasingura (deceased) was Noame Tumwiine nephew.

●     Charles Tumwine is husband of Noame Tumwine

●     Norman  Muhangi is cousin of Turyasingura

●     Geoffrey Duku was a security guard at Tumwine’s residence but now missing

●     Tumwine is the owner of the house where the bodies were found in the septic tank.

●     Roland Akatulinda was a worker at Tumwine’s construction site.

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