Woman, husband axed to death over land in Mubende

Police have arrested five suspects in connection with a double brutal murder of a landlord together with her husband in central Uganda.

The 54-year-old Milly Naava Namutebi and her 53-year-old husband Abudallah Kayizi –both residents of Kirwanyi Village in Kiruma Sub County in Mubende District- were brutally murdered on Monday morning. 

Muzafaru Ssekamate told Monitor that a group of about 30 residents attacked his parents and brother Ibrahim Kawuma at around 8am.

“We were heading to our garden to collect food and a group of people armed with machetes, spears, clubs and axes surrounded  my father. They first battered him with big sticks until he fell down. They later killed him with an axe,” 17-year-old Ssekamatte said in an emotional interview on Monday.

“After killing our father, our mother attempted to run away, but because she is obese, she didn’t go far. One of the attackers threw a brick on her back which forced her to fall down. He later hit my mother with an axe on the head and she died,” Ssekamatte who was cut on the head but managed to escape from the angry mob explained.

“We alerted the officer in charge of the Madudu police post that a group of residents was planning to attack us but it took him two hours to reach the scene when our parents had already been killed,” Ibrahim Kawuma, another survivor told this publication.

Locals who spoke to Monitor linked the Monday incidents to a long-standing land battle the family has been involved in with over 3,000 sitting tenants in five villages in Kiruma Sub County.

Wamala Regional police spokesperson Racheal Kawala also said “preliminary findings also connected the gruesome murder to land conflicts between the family and residents.”

“Hunting is ongoing for more suspects who took part in the heinous act,” she emphasized.

Background

In 2017, the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire–led Commission of Inquiry into land matters declared Namutebi as an impostor after investigations revealed that she was in possession of dubious letters of administration and titles for the land.

In early July, a group of   people torched Namutebi’s home and also pulled down three other houses belonging to her relatives. Police arrested six residents in connection to the incident.

A few days later, the Inspector General of Police Martins Okoth Ochola sent a team led by the commissioner of police Denis Namuwoza to investigate the matter and the team promised to beef up the security of Namutebi’s family.

Similar incidents

Land has in the last two decades   become a sticky issue in many districts in central Uganda where mostly wealthy people with land titles evict poor tenants often termed squatters.

In the process repossessing their land, many landlords have been chased away by angry tenants and in some instances the landlords have been lynched or harmed.

On August 18, 2021, Rev Fr Josephat Kasambula of Kiyinda –Mityana Diocese was brutally murdered by a man who had encroached on his 15-acre farm at Lukunyu Village near Mamba landing site on Lake Wamala .The incident happened when the victim had gone to visit his farm.

On August 7 2019, known people pounced on 50-year-old landlord Muhammad Kamada Kimbugwe and killed him at Minaana Village in Mityana District.

Kimbugwe met his death as he distributed letters to tenants occupying his 1-square mile land covering Minaana and Galaba villages in Tamu Division, Mityana Municipality.